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I 



TWO LETTERS 


ON 


SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES, 


Addressed to Thomas Clarkson, £s4. 


BY 


I H. HAMMOND. 


COLUMBIA : 


ALLEIW, IflcCABTER, & Co. 


TBLE 8 


tOI^INIAN PRESS. 




.845. 







TWO LETTERS 



ON 



SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Addressed to Thomas Clarkson, Esq. 



BT 

J. H. HAMMOND. 



COLllIBfA^ 
ALXE\, xlIrCARTER, A Co. 
THK f!lOl Tn.CAROI.I.MA> PRESS. 

1845. 



■2-1 






^ 









TWO LETTERS 



ON 



SOUTHERN SLAVERY. 



8IL.VER BlillFF, South Carolina, ^ 

January 23, 1845. S 

Sir : — I received a short time ago, a letter from the Rev. Willouguby 
M. Dickinson, dated at your residence, " Playford Hall, near Ipswich, 26ih 
Nov., 1844," in which was inclosed a copy of your Circular Letter address- 
ed to professing Christians in our Northern States, having no concern wiih 
Slavery, and to others there. I presume that Mr. Dickinson's letter was 
written with your knowledge, and the document inclosed with your consent 
and approbation. I therefore feel that there is no impropriety in my address- 
ing my reply directly to yourself, especially as there is nothing in Mr. Dick- 
inson's communication, requiring serious notice. Having abundant leisure, 
it will be a recreation to me to devote a portion of it to an examination and free 
discussion of the question of Slavery as it exists in our Southern States : and 
since you have thrown down the gauntlet to me, I do not hesitate to take it up. 
Familiar as you have been with the discussions of this subject in all its 
aspects, and under all the excitements it has occasioned for sixty years past, 
I may not be able to present much that will be new to you. Nor ought I to 
indulge the hope of materially aflecting the opinions you have so long cherish, 
ed, and so zealously promulgated. Still, time and experience have developed 
facts, constantly furnishing fresh tests to opinions formed si.\ty years since, 
and continually placing this great question in points of view, which could 
scarcely occur to the most consummate intellect even a quarter of a century 
ago : And which may not have occurred yet to those whose previous convic- 
tions, prejudices and habits of thought have thoroughly and permanently 
biassed them to one fixed way of looking at the matter: While there are 
peculiarities in the operation of every social system, and special local as 



well as moral causes materially affecting it, which no one, placed at the dis- 
tance you are from us, can fully comprehend or properly appreciate. Be- 
sides, it may be possibly, a novelty to you to encouoter one who coi.scien* 
tiously believes the Domestic Slavery of these States to be not only an inex- 
orable necessity for the present, but a moral and humane institution, produc- 
tive of the greatest political and social advantages, and who is disposed, as I 
am, to defend it on these grounds. 

I do not propose, however, to defend the African Slave Trade. That is no 
longer a question. Doubtless great evils arise from it as it has been, and is 
now conducted : unnecessary wars and cruel kidnapping in Africa : the most 
shocking barbarities in the Middle Passage : and perhaps a less humane sys- 
tem of slavery in countries continually supplied with fresh laborers at a cheap 
rate. The evils of it, however, it may be fairly presumed, are greatly ex- 
aggerated. And if I might judge of the truth of transactions stated as oc 
curring in this trade, by that of those reported as transpiring among us, I 
should not hesitate to say, that a large proportion of the stories in circulation 
are unfounded, and most of the remainder highly colored. 

On the passage of the Act of Parliament prohibiting this trade to British 
subjects rests what you esteem the glory of your life. It required twenty 
years of arduous agitation, and the intervening extraordinary political events, 
to convince your countrymen, and among the rest your pious King, of the 
expediency of this measure : and it is but just to spy, that no one individual 
Tendered more essential service to the cause than you did. In reflecting on 
the subject, you must often ask yourself: What after all has been accomplish- 
ed:; how much human suffering has been averted ; how many human beings 
have been rescued from transatlantic slavery ? And on the answers you can 
give these questions, must in a great measure I presume, depend the happi- 
ness of your life. In framing them, how frequently must you be reminded 
of the remark of Mr. Grosvenor, in one of the early debates upon the sub- 
ject, which 1 believe you have yourself recorded, *• that he had twenty ob- 
jections to tlio abolition of the Slave Trade : the first was, that it was im- 
])Ossibh — the rest he need not give." Can you say to yourself, or to the 
world, ilrvii tills ^rs/ objoction of Mr. Grosvk.nor has been yet confuted? It 
was estimated at tlie cominencemeiit of your agitation in 1787, that forty-five 
thousand .Africans were annually transported to America and the West Indies. 
And the mortality of the I\Iiddlc Passage, computed by some at 5, is now 
admitted not to liave exceeded 9 per cent. Notwithstanding your Act of 
Parliament, the previous abolition by the United States, and that all the 
powers in the world have subsequently proliibited this trade— some of the 
greatest of ttu.-ni declaring it piracy, and covering the African seas with 
jarmed vessels to prevent it — Sir Thomas Fowei. Buxton, a coadjutor of 



yours, declared in 1840, that the i!urnl)ef of Africans now annually sold into 
slavery beyond the sea, amounts, al llie very least, to one hundred and fifty 
thousand souls ; while the mortality of the Middle Passage has increased, ia 
consequence of the measures taken to suppress the trade, to 25 or 30 per 
cent. And of the one hundred and fifty thousand slaves who have been 
captured and liberated by British Men of War since the passage of your Act, 
Judge Jay, an American Abolitionist, asserts that one hundred thousand, or 
two-thirds, have fcrished between their capture and liberation, Does it not 
really seem that Mr. Gkosvenor was a Prophet ? That though nearly all the 
'• impossibilities" of 1787 have vanished, and become as fumiliar_/ac/s as our 
household customs, under the magic influence of Steam, Cotton and univer- 
sal peace, yet this wonderful prophecy still stands, defying time and the energy 
and genius of mankind. Thousands of valuable lives and fifty millions of pounds 
sterling have been thrown away by your Government in fruitless attempts to 
overturn it. I hope you have not lived too long for your own happiness, though 
you have been spared to see thai in spite of all your toils and those of your 
fellow laborers, and the accomplishment of all that human agency could do, 
tiie African Slave Trade has increased three-fold under your own eyes — more 
rapidly, perhaps, than any other ancient branch of commerce — and that your 
efforts to suppress it have effected nothing more than a three-fold increase of 
its horrors. There is a God who rules this world — All powerful' — Farseeing : 
He does not permit His creatures to foil His designs. It is lie who, for His 
allwise, though to us often inscrutable purposes, throws " impossibilities" in 
the way of our fondest hopes and most strenuous exertions. Can you doubt this ? 

Experience having settled the point, that this Trade cannot be abolished by 
the use oil force, and that blockading squadrons serve only to make it more 
profitable and more cruel, I am surprised that the attempt is persisted in, un- 
less it serves as a cloak to some other purposes. It would be far better than 
it now is, for the African, if the trade was free from all restrictions, and left 
to the mitigation and decay which time and competition would surely bring 
about. ]f kidnapping, both secretly and by war made for the purpose, could 
be by any means prevented in Africa, the next greatest blessing you could 
bestow upon that country would be to transport its actual slaves in comforta- 
ble vessels across the Atlantic. Though they might be perpetual bondsmen, 
still, they would emerge from darkness into light — from barbarism to civili- 
zation — from idolatry to Christianity — in short from death to life. 

Bullet us leave the African slave trade, which has so signally defeated the 
Philanthropy of the worl', and turn to American slivery to which you have 
now directed your attention, and against which a crusude has been preached 
as enthusiastic and ferocious as that of Peter the Hermit — destined, I believe, 
to be about as successful. And here let mesav, there is a vast diiTcrence 



between the two, though you may not acknowlege it. The wisdom of ages 
has concurred in the justice and expediency of establishing rights by prescrip- 
tive use, however tortious, m their origin they may have been. You would 
deem a man insane, whose keen sense of equity would lead him to de- 
nounce your right to the lands you hold, and which perhaps you inherited from 
a long line of ancestry, because your title was derived from a Saxon or Nor. 
man conqueror, and your lands were originally wrested by violence from the 
vanquished Britons. And so would the New England Abolitionist regard 
any one who would insist that he should restore his farm to the descendants 
of the slaughtered Red men to whom God had as clearly given it as he gave 
life and freedom to the kidnapped African. That time does not consecrate 
wrong, is a fallacy which all history exposes ; and which the best and wisest 
men of all ages and professions of religious faith have practically denied. 
The means, therefore, whatever they may have been, by which the African 
race now in this country have been reduced to slavery, cannot affect us, since 
they are our property, as your land is yours, by inheritance or purchase and 
prescriptive right. You will say that man cannot hold properly in man. 
The answer is, that he can and actually does hold property in his fellow all 
the world over, in a variety of forms, and has always done so. 1 will show 
presently his authority for doing it. 

If you were to ask me whether I was an advocate of slavery in the ab- 
stract, 1 should probably answer, that I am not, according to my understand, 
ing of the question. I do not like to deal in abstractions. It seldom leads to 
any useful ends. There are few universal truths. 1 do not now remember 
any single moral truth universally acknowledged. We have no assurance 
that it is given to our finite understanding to comprehend abstract moral 
truth. Apart from Revelation and the Inspired Writings, what ideas should 
we have even of God, Salvation and Immortality? Let the Heathen answer. 
Justice itself is impalpable as an abstraction, and abstract liberty the merest 
phantasy that ever amused the imagination. This world was made for man, 
and man for the world as it is. Ourselves, our relations with one another 
and with all matter are real, not ideal. I might say ihat I am no more in fa- 
vor of slavery in the abstract, than I am of poverty, disease, deformity, idiocy 
or any other inequality in the condition of the human family ; that I love per- 
fection, asid think I should enjoy a Mi'llcnium such as God has promised. 
But what would it amount to ? A pledge that I would join you to set about 
eradicating those apparently inevitable evils of our nature, in equalizing the 
condition of all mankind, consummating the perfection of our race, and intro- 
ducing the Millenium ? By no means. To effect these things, belongs ex- 
clusively to a Higher Power. And it would be well for us to leave the Al- 
mighty to perfect His own works and fulfil His own Covenants. Especially* 



as the history of the past sliows how entirely futile all human efTorts have 
proved, when made for ihc purpose of aiding Him in carrying out even his 
revealed designs, and how invariably he has accomplished them by uncon. 
scious instruments, and in the face of human expectation. Nay more, that 
every aitcmpt which has been made by fallible man to extort from the world 
obedience to his " abstract" notions of riglit and wrong, has been invariably 
attended with calamities, dire and extended just in proportion to the breadth 
and vigor of the movement. On slavery in the abstract, then, it would not 
be amiss to have as little as possible to say. Let us contemplate it as it is. 
And thus contemplating it, the first question we have to ask ourselves is, 
whether it is contrary to the Will of God, as revealed to us in His Holy 
Scriptures — the only certain means given us to ascertain His Will. If it is, 
then slavery is a sin. And I admit ai once that every man is bound to set 
his face against it, and to emancipate his slaves should he hold any. 

Let us open these Holy Scriptures. In the twentieth chapter of Exodus, 
seventeenth verse, I find the following words : ♦' Thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant 
nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neigh- 
bor's" — which is the Tenth of those commandments that declare the essential 
[)rinciples of the Great Moral Law delivered to Moses by God Himself. 
Now, discarding all technical and verbal quibbling as wholly unworthy to be 
used in interpreting the Word of God, what is the plain meaning, undoubted 
intent, and true spirit of this commandment? Does it not emphatically and 
explicitly forbid you to disturb your neighbor in the enjoyment of his proper- 
ty ; and more especially of that which is here specifically mentioned as being 
lawfully and by this commandment made sacredly his? Prominent in the 
catalogue stands his " man-servant and his maid-servant," who are thus dis- 
tinctly consecrated as his property and guarantied to him for his exclusive be- 
nefit in the most solemn manner. You attempt to avert the otherwise irresis- 
tible conclusion, that slavery was thus ordained by God, by declaring that the 
word "slave" is not used here, and is not to be found in the Bible. And I have 
seen many learned dissertations on this point from Abolition pens. It is well 
known that both the Hebrew and Greek words translated "servant" in the 
Scripture?, mean also and most usually '« slave." The use of the one word 
instead of the other was a mere matter of taste with the Translators of the 
Bible, as it has been with all the cor.imentators and religious writers, the lat- 
ter of whom have I believe for the most part adopted the term " slave, or 
used both terms indiscriminately. If, then, these Hebrew and Greek words 
include the idea of both systems of servitude, the conditional and uncondi- 
tional, they should, as the major includes the minor proposition, be al- 
ways translated " slaves" unless the sense of the whole text forbids it. The 



real question, then is, what idea is iuteiiJed to be conveyed by the words used 
in the commandment quoted? And it is clear to my mind that as no limitation 
is affixed to them, and the express intention was to secure to mankind t!ie 
jjeaceful enjoyment of every species of property, that the terms " Men ser- 
vants and Maid servants" include all classes of servants, and establish a lawful, 
exclusive and indefeasible interest equally in the " Hebrew Brother who shall 
go out in the seventh year" and " the yearly hired servant," and those "pur- 
chased from the Heathen round about," who were to be "Bondmen forever,"" 
as the property of their fellow vian. 

You cannot deny that there were among the Hebrews "Bond-mea 
forever." You cannot deny that God especially authorized his chosen 
people to purchase "Bond-men forever" from the Heathen, as recorded 
in the 25i/t chap, of Leviticus, and that they are there designated by 
the very Hebrew word used in the Tenth commandment. Nor can 
you dp.ny that a "Bond-man forever" is a "vSlave;" yet you endeavor 
to hang an argument of immortal consequence upon the v.'retched subterfuge, 
that the precise word " slave" is not to be found in the translaticn of the 
Bible. As if the Translators were canonical expounders of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and their words, not God's meaning, must be regarded as His Revelation. 

It is vain to look to Christ or any of his Apostles to justify such blasphem- 
ous perversions of the word of God. Although slavery in its most revolting 
form was every where visible around them, no visionary notions of piety or 
philanthropy ever tempted them to gainsay the Law, even to mitigate the 
cruel severity of the existing system. On the contrary, regarding slavery as 
an established as well as inevitable condition of human society, they never hint, 
ed at such a thing as its termination on earth, any more than that '-the poor 
may cease out of the land," which God affirms to Moses shall never be : 
and they exhort "all servants under the yoke" to "count their masters as 
worthy of all honor :" "to obe^y them in all things accordings to the flesh ; 
not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God :" 
"not only the good and gentle, but also the froward :" "for what glory is it 
if when ye are bufFetted for your faults ye sliall take it patiently ? but if when 
ye do well and suffer ioy it ye take it patiently, this is acceptable of God." 
St. Paul actually apprehended a runaway slave and sent him to his master ! In- 
stead of deriving from the Gospel any sanction for the work you have under- 
taken, it would be difficult to imagine sentiments and conduct more strikingly in 
contrast than those of the Apostles and the Abolitionists. 

It is impossible therefore to suppose that slavery is contrary to the Will ot 
God. It is equally absurd to say that American slavery differs in form or 
principle from that of the chosen People. We accept the Bible terms as the 
defnition of our slavery, and its precepts as the guide of our conduct. We 



desire nothing more. Even the right to " buffet," which is esteemed so 
shocking, finds its express license in the Gospel. 1 Pe'cr n. 20. Nay, 
what is more, God directs the Hebrews to "bore holes in the ears of their 
brothers" to mark tiiem, when under certain circumstances they become 'per- 
petual slaves : Ex. xxL 6. 

I ihink, then, I may safely conclude, and I nrmly believe, that American 
slavery is not only not a sin, but especially commanded by God through 
Moses, and approved by Christ through His Apostles. And here I might 
close its defen-.-e ; for what God ordain.s and Christ sanctifies should surely 
command the respect and toleration of Man. But I fear there has grown 
up in our time a Transcendental Religion which is throwing even Transcen- 
dental Philosophy into the shade — a Religion too pure and elevated for the 
Bible; which seeks to erect among men a higher standard of Morals than the 
Almighty has revealed or our Saviour preached ; and which is probably de- 
stined to do more to impede the extension of God's Kingdom on earth than 
all the Infidels who have ever lived. Error is error. It is as dangerous to dc- 
viate to the right hand as the left. And when men, professing to be holy men, 
and who are by numbers so regarded, declare those things to be sinful which 
our Creator has expressly authorized and instituted, they do more to de-troy 
His authority among mankind than the most wicked can effect by proclaiming 
tiiat to be innocent which He has forbidden. To this self-righteous and self- 
exalted class belong all the Abolitionists whose writings I have read. With 
them it is no end of the argument to prove your propositions by the text of the 
Bible, interpreted according to its plain and palpable meaning, and as under- 
stood by all mankind for three tliousand years before their time. They are 
more ingenious at construing and interpolating to accommodate it to their 
new-fangled and eiherial code of morals, than ever were Voltaire or Hume 
in picking it to pieces to free the world from what they considered a delusion. 
When the Abolitionists proclaim "man-stealing" to be a sin, and show me 
that it is so written down by God, I admit them to be right, and shudder at 
the idea of such a crime. But when I show them that to hold "bond-men for- 
ever" is ordained by God, they deny the Bible, and set up in its place a Law 
of their oton making. I must then c^:;asc to reason with them on this branch of 
the question. Our religion differs as widely as our manners. The Great 
Judge in our day of final account must decide between us. 

Turning from the consideration of slave-holding in its relations to man as 
an accountable being, let us examine it in its influence on his political and 
social state. Though, being foreigners to us, you are in no wise entitled to 
interfere with the civil institutions of this country, it has become quite com. 
mon for your countrymen to decry slavery as an enormous political evil to us, 
and even to declare that our Nrrthern States ought to withdraw from the 



16 

Confederacy rather than conthiue to be contaminated by it. The American 
Abolitionists appear to concur fully in these sentiments, and a portion at 
least of them are incessantly threatening to dissolve the Union. Nor should 
I be at :ill surprised if they succeed. It would not be difficult, in my opinion, 
10 conjecture which region, the North or South, would suffer most by such 
an event. For one I should not object, by any means, to cast my lot in a 
confederacy of States whose citizens might all be slave-holders. 

I indorse without reserve the much-abused sentiment of Gov. M'Duffie, that 
" slavery is the corner stone of our Republican edifice ;" while I repudiate, as 
ridiculously absurd, that much-lauded but no-where accredited dogma of Mr. 
Jefferson, that "all men are born equal." No Society has ever yet existed, 
and I have already incidentally quoted the highest authority to show that none 
ever will exist, without a natural variety of classes. The most marked of 
these must in a country like ours, be the rich and the poor, the educated and 
the ignorant. It will scarcely be disputed that the very poor have less leisure 
to prepare themselves for the proper discharge of public duties than the rich ; 
and that the ignorant are wholly unfit for them at all. In all countries save 
ours these two classes, or the poor rather, who are presumed to be necessari- 
ly ignorant, are by law expressly excluded from all participation in the man- 
agement of public affairs. In a Republican Government this cannot be done. 
Universal suffrage, though not essential in theory, seems to be in fact a neces- 
saryappendage to a Republican system. Where universal suffrage obtains it is 
obvious that the government is in the hands of a numerical majority ; and it 
is hardly necessary to say that in every part of the world more than half the 
people are ignorant and poor. Though no one can look upon poverty as a 
crime, and we do not generally here regard it as any objection to a man in 
his individual capacity, still it must be admitted that it is a wretched and in- 
secure government which is administered by its most ignorant citizens, and 
those who have the least at stake under it. Though intelligence and wealth 
have great influence here as everywhere in keeping in check reckless and 
unenlightened numbers, yet it is evident to close observers, if not to all, that 
these are rapidly usurping all power in the non-slave-holding States, and 
threaten a fearful crisis in Republican Institutions there at no remote period. 
In the slave-holding States, however, nearly one-half of the whole population 
and those the poorest and most ignorant, have no poli.ical influence whateven 
because they are slaves. Of the other half a large proportion are both edu- 
cated and independent in their circumstances, while those who unfortunately 
are not so, being still elevated far above the mass, are higher toned and more 
deeply interested in preserving a stable and well ordered Government, than 
the same class in any other country. Hence, slavery is truly the " corner 
stone" and foundation of every well-designed and durable " Republican edi- 
fice." 



11 

Willi us every citizen is conccrneri in the maintainancc of order, and in 
promoting honesty and industry among those of the lowest class who are our 
slaves ; and our habitual vigilance renders standing armies, whether of Sol- 
diers or Policemen, entirely unnecessary. Small guards in our cities, and 
occasional patrols in the country, ensure us a repose and security known no 
where else. You cannot be ignorant that, excepting the United States, there 
is no country in the world whoso existing Government would not be over- 
turned in a month, but for its standing armies, maintained at an enormous 
and destructive cost to those whom they are destined to over-awe — so ram- 
pant and combative is the spirit of discontent wherever nominal Free labor 
prevails, with its ostensive privileges and its dismal servitude. Nor will it 
be long before the " Free Slates" of this Union will be compelled to intro- 
ducp the same expensive machinery to preserve order among their "free and 
equal" citizens. Already has Philadelphia organized a permanent Battalion 
for this purpose : New-York, Boston and Cincinnati will soon follow her ex- 
ample ; and then the smaller towns and densely populated counties. The 
intervention of their militia to repress violations of the peace is becoming a 
daily atTair. A strong Government, after some of the old fashions — though 
probably with a new name — sustained by the force of armed mercenaries, 
is the ultimate destiny of the non-slave-holding section of this confederacy, 
and one which may not be very distant. 

It is a great mistake to suppose, as is generally done abroad, that in case 
of war slavery would be a source of weakness. It did not weaken Rome, nor 
Athens, nor Sparta, though their slaves were comparatively far more numer- 
ous than ours, of the same color for the most part with themselves, and 
large numbers of them fjimiliar with the use of arms. I have no apprehen- 
sion that our slaves would seize such an opportunity to revolt. The present 
generation of them, born among us, would never think of such a thing at 
any time, unless instigated to it by others. Against such instigations we are 
always on our guard. In time of war we should be more watchful and bet- 
ter prepared to put down insurrections than at any other periods. Should 
any foreign nation be so lost to every sentiment of civilized humanity as to 
attempt to erect among us the standard of revolt, or to invade us with Black 
Troops for the base and barbarous purpose of stirring up servile war, their 
efforts would be signally rebuked. Our slaves could not be easily seduced, 
nor would any thing delight them more than to assist in stripping Cuffee of 
his regimentals to put him in the Cotton-field, which would be the fate of 
most black invaders, without any very prolix form of "apprenticeship." If, 
as I am satisfied would be the case, our slaves remained peacefully on our 
plantations, and cultivated them in time of war under the surperintendance 
of a limited number of our citizens, it is obvious that we could put fuith 



12 

more strength In sucl) an emergency, at less sacrifice, than any other peo- 
ple of the same numbers. And thi's we should in every point of view, "out 
of this nettle danger, pluck the flower safety." 

liow far slavery may be an advantage or disadvantage to those not owning 
slaves, yet united with us in political association, is a question for their sole 
consideration. It is true that our Representation in Congress is increased by 
it. But so are our Taxes ; and the non-slavc-holding States being the ma- 
jority divide among themselves far the grtiater portion of the amount levied 
by the Federal Government. And I doubt not that when it comes to a close 
calculation they will not be slow in finding out that the balance of profit ari- 
sing from the connection is vastly in their favor. 

In a social point of view the Abolitionists pronounce slavery to be a mon- 
strous evil. If it was so, it would be our own peculiar concern, and super- 
fluous benevolence in them to lament over it. Seeing their bitter hostility 
to us, they might leave us to cope with our own calamities. But they 
make war upon us out of excess of charity, and attempt to purify by cover- 
ing us with calumny. You have read and assisted to circulate a great deal 
about aff'rays, duels and murders occuring here, and all attributed to the ter- 
rible demoralization of slavery. Not a single event of this sort takes place 
among us, but it is caught up by the Abolitionists and paraded over the world 
with endless comments, variations and exaggerations. You should not take 
what reaches you as a mere sample, and infer that there is a vast deal more 
you never hear. You hear all, and more than all, the truth. 

It is true th.at the point of honor is recognized throughout the slave region, 
end that disputes of certain classes are frequently referred for adjustment to 
the " trial by combat." It would not be appropriate for me to enter, in this 
letter, into a defence of the practice of duelling, nor to maintain at length 
that it does not tarnish the character of a people to acknowledge a standard 
of iionor. Whatever evils may arise from it, however, they cannot be 
attributed to slavery, since the same custom prevails both in France 
and England. Few of your Prime Ministers, of the last half century 
even, have escaped the contagion, I believe. The afli'ays, of w'hich so 
much is said, and in which rifles, bowie-knives and pistols are so prominent, 
occur mostly in the Frontier States of the South- West. They are naturally 
incidental to the condition of society as it exists in many sections uf these 
recently settled countries, and will as naturally cease in due time. Adven- 
turers from the older States and from Europe, as desperate in character as they 
are in fortune, congregate in these wild regions, jostling one another and 
often forcing the peaceable and honest into rencontres in self-defence. Slave- 
ry has nothing to do with these things. Stability and peace are the first de- 
sires of every .slave-holder, and the true tendency of the system. It could 



13 

not possibly exist amid the eternal anarchy and civil biuils of ihc ancient 
Spanish dominions in America. And for this very reason, domestic slavery 
has ceased there. So far from encouraging strife, such scenes of riot and 
bloodshed as have within the last few years disgraced our Northern cities, 
and as you have lately witnessed in Birmingham and Bristol and Wales, not 
only nevei* have occurred, but I will venture to say never will occilr in our 
slave-holding States. The only thing that can create a mob (as you might 
call it) here, is the appearance of an Abolitionist whom the people assembk 
to chastise. And this is no more of a mob, than a rally of shepherds to 
chase a wolf out of their pastures would be one. 

But vvcaro swindlers and rcpudiators ! Pennsylvania is not a slave State. A 
majority of the States Which have failed to meet their obligations punctually 
are non-slave-holding; and two-thirds of the debt said to be repudiated is 
owed by these States. Many of the States of this Union are heavily encum- 
bered with debt-^none so hopelessly as Elngland. Pennsylvania owes $22 
for each inhabitant — England $222, counting her paupers in. Nor has there 
been any repudiation definite and final, of a lawful debt, that I am aware of. 
A few States have f;\iled to pay some instalments of interest. The extraor- 
dinary financial difficulties which occurred a few years ago account for it. 
Time will set all things right again. Every dollar of both principal and in- 
terest owed by any State, North or South, will be ultimately paid, unless the 
abolition of slavery ovenchelms us all in one common ruin. But have no other 
nations failed to pay ? When were the French Assignats redeemed? How 
much interest did your National Bank pay on its immense circulation from 
1797 to 1821, during which period that circulation was inconvertible, and 
for the time repudiated 1 How much of your National Debt has been incurred 
tor money borrowed to meet the interest on it, thus avoiding delinquency in 
detail, by insuring inevitable bankruptcy and repudiation in the end ? And 
what sort of operation was that by which yotir present Ministry recently ex-" 
punged a handsome amount of that debt by substituting, through a process 
just not compulsory, one species of security for another? I am well aware 
that the faults of others do not excuse our own, but when failings are charged 
to slavery, which are shown to occur to equal extent where it does not exist, 
surely slavery must be acquitted of the accusation. 

It is roundly asserted, that we are not so well educated nor so religious here 
as elsewhere. I will not go into tedious statistical statements on these subjects. 
Nor have I, to tell the truth, much confidence in the details of what are com- 
monly set forth as stati-stics. As to education, you will probably admit that 
slave-holders should have more leisure for mental culture than most people. 
And 1 believe it is charged against them that they are peculiarly fond of power, 
and ambitious of honors. If this be so, as all the power and honors of this 



14 

countiy are won mainly by iPitcllectual superiority it might be fairly presumed 
that slave-holders would not be neglectful of education. In proof of the ac- 
curacy of this presumption I point you to the facts, that our Presidential chair 
has been occupied for forty four out of fifty-six years by slave-holders ; that 
another has been recently elected to fill it for four more, over an opponent 
who was a slave-holder also ; and that in the Federal offices and both Houses 
of Congress considerably more than a due proportion of those acknowledged 
to stand in the first rank are from the South. In this arena the intellects of the 
free and slave States meet in full and fair competition. Nature must have been 
unusually bountiful to us, or we have been at least reasonably assiduous in the 
cultivation of such gifts as she has bestowed — unless indeed you refer our supe- 
riority to moral qualities, which I am sure you will not. More wealthy we are 
not ; nor would mere wealth avail in such rivalry. 

The piety of the South is unobtrusive. We think it proves but little, 
though it is a confident thing for a man to claim that he stands higher in the 
estimation of his Creator, and is less a sinner, than his neighbor. If vocifera* 
tion is to carry the question of religion, the North and probably the Scotch 
have it. Our sects are few, harmonious, pretty much united among them- 
selves, and pursue their avocations in humble peace. In fact, our professors of 
Religion seem to think— 'Whether correctly or not — that it is their duty " to 
do good in secret" and to carry their holy comforts to the heart of each indivi- 
dual, without reference to class or color, for his special enjoyment, and not with 
a view to exhibit their zeal before the world. So far as numbers are concerned, 
I believe our clergymen, when called on to make a showing, have never had 
occasion to blush, if comparisons v/ere drawn between the free and slave 
States. And although our presses do not teem with controversial pamphlets, 
nor our pulpits shake with excommunica-ting thunders, the daily walk of our re- 
ligious communicants furnishes apparently as little food for gossip as is to be 
found in most other regions. It may be regarded as a mark of our want of 
eXcitability—'though that is a quality accredited to us in an eminent degree— 
that k\v of the remarkable religious tsms of the present day have taken root 
among us. We have been so irreverent as to laugh at Mormonism and Mil. 
lerism, which have created such commotions farther North ; and modern 
Prophets have no honor in our country. Shakers, Rappists, Dunkers, So- 
cialists, Fourrierists and the like keep themselves afar off. Even Puscyism 
has not yet moved us. You may attribute this to ou.- Domestic Slavery if 
you choose. I believe you would do so justly. There is no material here 
for such characters to operate upon. 

But your grand charge is that licentiousness in intercourse between th 
sexes is a prominent trait of our social system, and that it necessarily arises 
from slavery. This is a favorite theme with the Abolitionists, male and fe- 



15 

male. Folios have been written on it. It is a common observation, that 
there is no subject on which ladies of eminent virtue so much delight to dwell, 
and on which in especial learned old maids like Miss Martineau linger with 
such an insatiable relish. They expose it in the Slave States with ihe most min- 
ute observance and endless iteration. Miss Martineau, with peculiar gust, 
relates a series of scandalous stories which would have made Boccacio jeal- 
ous o( her pen, but which are so ridiculously false as to leave no doubt that 
some wicked wag, knowing she would write a book, has furnished her mate- 
rials — a game too often played on Tourists in this country. The constant 
recurrence of the female Abolitionists to this topic, and their bitterness in 
regard to it, cannot fail to suggest to even the most charitable mind, that 

" Such rage without betrays the fires within." 
Nor are their immaculate coadjutors of the other sex, though perhaps less 
specific in their charges, less violent in their denunciations. But recently 
in your Island a clergyman has, at a public meeting, stigmatized the whole 
Slave region as a "Brothel." Do these people thus cast stones being "with, 
out sin" ? Or do they only 

"Compound for sins they are inclinefJ to 
By damning those they have no mind to." 

Alas that David and Solomon should be allowed to repose in peace— that 

Leo should be almost canonized, and Luther more than sainted — that in our 

own day courtezans should be formally licensed in Paris, and tenements in 

London rented for years to women of the town for the benefit of the Church, 

with the knowledge of the Bishop — and the poor Slave States of America 

alone pounced upon and offered up as a holocaust on the Altar of Immacu. 

lateness to atone for the abuse of natural instinct by all mankind ; and if not 

actually consumed, at least exposed, anathematized and held up to scorn, bv 

those who 

"write 
Or with a Rival's or an Eunuch'3 spite." 

But I do not intend to admit that this charge is just or true. Without 
meaning to pro.^ess uncommon modesty, I will say that I wish the topic could 
be avoided. I am of opinion, and I doubt not every right-minded man will 
concur, that the public exposure and discussion of this vice, even to rebuke, 
invariabl} does more harm than good ; and that if it cannot be checked by 
instilling pure and virtuous sentiments, it is far worse than useless to attempt 
to do it, by exhibiting its deformities. I may not, however, pass it over ; nor 
ought I to feel any delicacy in examining a question to which the Slave-holder 
is invited and challenged by Clergymen and Virgins. So far from allowing, 
then, that licentiousness pervades this region, I broadly assert, and I refer to 
the records of our Courts, to the public press, and to the knowledge of all 



16 

who have ever lived here, that among our while population, there are fewcY 
cases of divorce, separation, crim con, seduction, rape and bastardy, than 
riinong any other five millions of people on the civilized earth. And this 
fact I believe will be conceded by the Abolitionists of this country themselves, 
i am almost willing to refer il to them and submit to their decision on it. I 
would not hesitate to do so if I thought them capable of an impartial judg- 
nient on any matter where Slavery is in question. But it is said that the li- 
ceniiousuess consists in the constant intercourse between white males and 
colored females. One of your heavy charges against us has been that we 
regard and treat these people as brutes ; you now charge us whh habitually 
taking them to our bosoms. I will not comment on the inconsistency of these 
accusations. I will not deny that some intercourse of the sort does take 
place. Its character and extent, however, are grossly and atrociously exag- 
gerated. No authority divine or human has yet been found sufficient to ar- 
rest all such irregularities among men. But it is a known fact, that they are 
perpetrated hercj for the most part) in the cities. Very few mulattoes are 
reared on our plantations. In the cities a large proportion of the inhabitants 
do not own slaves. A still larger proportion are natives of the North or for- 
eigners. They should share, and justly, too, an equal part in this sin wit'ii 
tlje Slave-holders. Facts cannot be ascertained, or I doubt not it would ap- 
pear that they are the chief offenders. If the truth be otherwise, then per- 
sons from abroad have stronger prejudices against the African race than we 
have. Be this as it may, it is well known that this intercourse is regarded 
in our society as highly disreputable. If carried on habitually it seriously 
affects a man's standing, so far as it is known ; and he who takes a colored 
mistress — with rare and extraordinary exceptions — loses caste at once. You 
will say that one exception should damn our whole country. How much less 
criminal is it to take a while mistress ? In your eyes it should be at least an 
i;qual offence. Yet look around you at home, from the cottage to the throne, 
and count how many mistresses are kept m unblushing notoriety, without any 
loss of caste» Such cases are almost unknown here, and down even to the 
lowest walks of life it is almost invariably fatal to a man's position and pros- 
pects to keep a mistress openly, whether white or black. What Miss Mar- 
tineau relates of a young man's purchasing a colored concubine from a lady 
and avowing his designs, is too absurd even lor contradiction. No person 
would dare to allude to such a subject in such a manner to any decent female 
in this country. If he did, he would be lynched — doubtless with your appro- 
bation. 

After all, however, the number of the mixed breed in proportion to that of 
the black is infinitely small, and out of the towns next to nothing. And when 
it is considered that the African race has been among us for two hundred yearsv 



17 

and thai those of itic mixed breed continually intcrmnrry — often rearing 
large families — it is a decided proof of our continence that so few comparatively 
are to be found. Our misfortunes arc two-fold. From the prolific propngation 
of these mongrels among themselves, we are liable to be charged by tourists 
with delinquencies where none have been committed, while, where one has 
been, it cannot be concealed. Color marks indelibly the offence, and reveals 
it to every eye. Conceive that, even in your virtuous and polished country, 
if every bastard through all the circles of your social system was thus bran- 
ded by nature and known to all, what shocking developments might there not 
be ! Mow liltl(i indignation might your saints have to spare for the licentious, 
ness of the slave region. But I have done with this disgusting topic. And 
! think I may justly conclude, after all the scandalous charges which tea-ta- 
ble gossip and long-gov/ned hypocrisy have brought against the slave-holders, 
that a people whose men are proverbially brave, intellectual and hospitable, 
and whose women are unaffectedly chaste, devoted to domestic lile and happy 
in it, can neither be degraded nor demoralized, whatever their institutions 
may be. My decided opinion is, that our system of Slavery contributes 
largely to the developemeiit and culture of these high and noble qualities. 

In an economical point of view — which I will not omit — Slavery presents 
some difficulties. As a general rule, I agree it must be admitted, that free 
labor is cheaper than Slave labor. It is a fallacy to suppose that ours is un- 
paid labor. The slave himself must be paid for, and thus his labor is all pur- 
oiiased at once, and for no trifling sum. His price was in the first place 
paid mostly to your countrymen, and assisted in building up some of those 
colossal English fortuiics since illustrated by patents o[ nobility, and splendid 
piles of architecture, stained and cemented, if you like the expression, with 
the blood of kidnapped innocents ; but loaded with no heavier curses than 
Abolition and its begotten fanaticisms have brought upon your land — some of 
them fulfilled, some yet to be. But besidt-s the first cost of the slave, he must 
be fed and clothed — well fed and well clothed, if not for humanity's sake, that 
he may do good work, retain health and life, and rear a family to supply his 
place. When old or sick he is a clear expense, and so is the helpless portion 
of his family. No poor law provides for him when unable to work, or brings 
up his children lor our service when we need thcjn. Thescare all heavy charges 
on slave labor. Hence, in all countries where llie denseness of the popula- 
'.ion has reduced it lo a matter of perfect certainty th;il labor can be obtained 
wtienever wanted, dnd the laborer be forced by sheer n(;cessity to hire for the 
smallest pittance that will keep soul rind boiJy together and rags upon his back 
while in actual emiiloynient — dependent at all other times on alms or poor 
rates — in all such countries it is found clicaper to pay this pittance than to 
clothe, feed, nurse, support through childhood and pension in old age a race of 



18 

slaves. Indeed, the advantage is so great as speedily to compensate for the 
loss of the value of the slave. And I have no hesitation in saying that if I 
could cultivate my lands on these terms I would without a word resign my 
slaves, provided they could be properly disposed of. But the question is, 
whether free or slave labor is cheapest to us in this country at this time, situ- 
ated as we are. And it is decided at once by the fact tiiat we cannot avail 
ourselves of any other than slave labor. We neither have nor can we pro- 
cure other labor to any extent, or on anything like the teruis mentioned., 
We must therefore content ourselves with our dear labor, under the consol- 
ing reflection that v/Imt is lost to us, is gained to humanity ; and that inas- 
much as our fclave cost.s us more than your free man costs you, by so much is' 
lie better off. You will promptly say, emancipate your slaves, and then you 
will have free labor o'l suitable terms. That might be if there were five 
Imndred where there now is one, :ind the continent, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, v/as as densely populated as your Island. But until that comes to pass 
no labor can be procured in America on the terms you have it. 

While I ihus freely admit that to the individual proprietor slave labor is 
dearer than free, I do not mean to admit it as equally clear that it is dearer 
to the community and to the State. Though it is certain that the slave is a 
far greater consumer than your laborer the year round, yet your pauper sys- 
tern is costly and wasteful. Supported by your community at largo, it is not 
administered by your hired agents with that interested care and economv — 
not to speak of humanity — "which mark the n;anagement of ours by each pro- 
prietor for his own non-effectives; and is both more expensive to those who 
pay, and less beneficial to those who receive its bounties. Besides this, Sla- 
very is rapidly filling up our country with a hardy and healthy race peculiarly 
adapted to our climate and productions, and conferring signal political and 
social advantages on us as a people to uliich I have already referred. 

I have yet to reply to the main ground on which you and your coadjutor.-* 
rely for the overthrow of our system of slavery. Failing in all your at,- 
tempts toptove that it is sinfu! in its nature, immoral in its cffijcts, a political 
evil, and profitless to those who maintain it, } ou appeal to the sympathies of 
mankind, and attempt to arouse the world against us by the most shockin^r 
charges of tyranny and cruelly. Vou begin b}' a vehement denunciation of 
, *'lhe irresponsible power of one man over His fellow men." The question 
of the responsibility of power is a va.stpne. It i.s the great political qucs- 
tion of modern times. Whole nations divide ofi* upon it and establish dif- 
ferent fundamental systems of governm lit. Tliat "responsibility," which to 
one set of millions seorns am|)ly .sufficient to check the government to the 
support of v/hich. they devote tlseir lives and fortunes, appears to another set 
of millions a mere nr'ckery of restraint. And accoirdingly £s ihc opinious 



19 

of lliese millions ditlcr, they honor cncli otlicr with the epilliets of "Sorfs" or 
"Anarchists." It is ridiculous to introduce such an idea as this into the discus- 
sion of a mere Domestic Institution. But since you have introiluced it, I deny 
that the power of the slave-holder in America is "irresponsible." He is re- 
sponsible to God. He is responsible to the world — a responsibility which 
Abolitionists do not intend to allow him to evade — and in acknowledgment 
of which I write you this letter. He is responsible to the community in 
which he lives, and to the laws under which he enjoys his civd rights. Those 
laws do not permit him to kill, to maim, or to punish beyond certain limits, 
or to overtask, or to refuse to feed and clothe iiis slave. In short, they for- 
bid him to be tyrannical or cruel. If any of these laws have grown obso- 
lete, it is because they arc so seldom violated that they are forgotten. You 
have disinterred one of them from a compilation by some Judge Stroud of 
Philadelphia, to stigmatize its inadequate penalties for killing, maiming, &c. 
Your object appears to be — you can have no other — to produce the impres- 
sion that it must be often violated on account of its insuHiciency. You say 
as much, and that it marks our estimate of the slave. You forget to state- 
that this law was enacted i)y Englishmen, and only indicates their or)inion of 
the reparation due for these ofTenccs. Ours is proved by the fact, thoutdi 
perhaps unknov/n to Judge Stroud or yourself, that we have essentially al- 
tered this law ; and the murder of a slave has for many years been punish- 
able with death in this State. And so it is, I believe, in most or all the slave 
States. You seem well aware, however, that laws have been recently passed 
in all these States making it penal to teach slaves to read. Do you know 
what occasioned their passage, and renders their stringent enforcement ne- 
cessary ? I can tell you. It was the Abolition agitation. If the slave is 
not allowed to read his Bible, the sin rests upon the Abolitionists ; for thev 
stand prepared to furnish him with a Key to it, which would make it, not a 
Book of hope and love and peace, bt;t of despair, hatred and blood ,• which 
would convert the reader, not into a Christian, but a Demon. To preserve 
him from such a horrid destiny, it is a sacred duty which we owe to our slaves, 
not less than to ourselves, to interpose the most decisive means. If the Ca- 
tholics deem it wrong to trust the Bible to the hands of ignorance, shall we 
bo excommunicated because we will not give it, and with it the corrupt and 
fatal commentaries of the Abolhionists, to our slaves ? Allow our slaves to 
read your pamphlets, stimulating them to cut our thio;:ts ! Can yon believe 
us to be such unspeakable fools ? 

I do not know that I can subscribe in full to the sentiment so often quoted 
by the Abolitionists, and by Mr. DiciiiNs:>N in hi-; letter to me : '■'•Homo sum 
et nildl humanuni amc alienum jiulo" as translated and practically illustrated 
by them. Such a doctrine would give v.iJc autiiority lu every one for the 



20 

most dangerous intermeddling with the affairs of others. It will do in poe» 
try — perhaps in some sorts of Philosophy — but the attempt to make it a house- 
hold maxim, and introduce it into the daily walks of life, has caused many an 
"Homo" a broken crown ; and probably will continue to do it. Still, though 
a slave-holder, I freely acknowledge my obligations as a man ; and that I am 
bound to treat humanely the fellow creatures whom God has entrusted to my 
charge. I feel therefore somewhat sensitive under the accusation of cruelty, 
and disposed to defend myself and fellow slave-holders against it. It is cer. 
lainly the interest of all, and I am convinced that it is also the desire of 
every one of us, to treat our slaves with proper kindness. It is necessary to 
our deriving the greatest amount of profit from them. Of this we are all 
satisfied. And you snatch from us the only consolation we Americans could 
derive from the opprobious imputation of being wholly devoted to making 
money, which your disinterested and gold-despising countrymen delight to 
cast upon us, when you nevertheless declare that we arc ready to sacrifice 
it for the pleasure of being inhuman. You remember that Mr. Pitt could 
never get over the idea that self-interest would insure kind treatment to slaves, 
until you told him your woful stories of the Middle Passage. Mr. Pitt was 
right in the first instance, and erred, under your tuition, in not perceiving the 
■difference between a temporary and permanent ownership of them. Slave- 
holders are no more perfect than other men. They have passions. Some 
of them, as you may suppose, do not at all times restrain them. Neither do 
husbands, parents and friends. And in each of these relations as serious 
sufferings as frequently arise from uncontrolled passions as ever does in that 
of Master and Slave, and with as little chance of indemnity. Yet you would 
not on that account break them up. I have no hesitation in saying that our 
slave-holders are as kind masters, as men usually are kind husbands, parents 
&nd friends — as a general rule, kinder. A bad master — he who overworks 
his slaves, provides il! for them, or treats them with undue severity — loses 
the esteem and respect of his fellow citizens to as great an extent as he would 
for the violation of any of his social and most of his moral obligations. 
What the most perfect plan of management would be is a problem hard to solve. 
From the commencement of Slavery in this country, this subject has occu- 
pied the minds of all slave-holders, as much as the improvement of the gen. 
eral condition of mankind has those of the most ardent Philanthropists ; and 
the greatest progressive amelioration of the system has been etfected. You 
yourself acknowledge that in the early part of your career you were exceed- 
ingly anxious for the immediate abolition of the Slave Trade, lest those enga- 
ged in it should so mitigate its evils as to destroy the force of your arguments 
and facts. The improvement you then dreaded has gone on steadily here, 
and would doubtless have taken place in the Slave Trade but for tho measures 
adopted to suppress it. 



21 

Of late years we have been not only annoyed, but greatly embarrassed in 
this matter, by the Abolitionists. We have been compelled to curtail some 
privileges ; we have been debarred from granting new ones. In the face of 
discussions which aim at loosening all ties between master and slave, we have 
in some measure to abandon our cfForts to attach them to us and control them 
through their alFections and pride. VVc have to rely more and more on the 
power of fear. We must ia all our intercourse with them assert and main- 
tain strict mastery, and impress it on them that they are Slaves. This is 
painful to us, and certainly no present advantage to them. But it is the direct 
consequence of the Abolition agitation. We arc determined to continue Mas- 
ters, and to do so we have to draw the rein tighter and tighter day by day to 
be assured that we hold them in complete check. How far this process will 
go on depends wholly and solely on the Abolitionists. When they desist we 
can relax. We may not before. I do not mean by all this to say that we are 
in a state of actual alarm and fear of our slaves ; but under existing circum- 
stances we should be inefTably stupid not to increase our vigilance and 
strengthen our hands. You see some of the fruits of your labors. I speak 
freely and candidly — not as a colonist who, though a slaveholder has a mas- 
ter; but as a free white man, holding, under God, and resolved to hold, my fate 
in my own hands ; and 1 assure you that my sentiments and feelings and de- 
terminations are those of every slaveholder in this country. 

The research and ingenuity of the Abolitionists, aided by the invention of 
runaway slaves — in which faculty, so far as improvising falsehood goes, the 
African Race is without a rival — have succeeded in shocking the world with 
a small number of pretended intanccs of our barbarity. The only wonder 
is that, considering the extent of our country, the variety' of our population, 
its fluctuating character, and the publicity of all our transactions, the number 
of cases collected is so small. It sj^caks well for us. Yet of these many 
are false, all highly colored, some occurring half a century, most of them 
many years, ago ; and no doubt a large proportion of them perpetrated by 
foreigners. With a few rare exceptions the emigrant Scotch and English are 
the worst masters among us, and next to them our Northern fellow-citizens. 
Slaveholders born and bred here are always more humane to slaves, and those 
who have grown up to a large inheritance of them, the most so of any — 
showing clearly that the efTect of the system is to foster kindly feelings. 1 
do not mean so much to impute innate inhumanity to foreigners, as to show 
that that they come here with false notions of the treatment usual and ne- 
cessary for slaves, and that newly acquired power here, as every where else, 
is apt to be abused. I cannot enter into a detailed examination of the cases 
stated by the Abolitionists. It would be disgusting and of little avail. I 
know nothing of them. I have seen nothing like them, though born and 



22 

bred here, and have rarely heard of anything at all to be compared with them. 
Permit me to say that I think most of ijour facts must have been drawn from 
the West Indies, where undoubtedly slaves were treated much more harshly 
than with us. This was owing to a variety of causes, which might, if ne- 
cessary, be stated. One was that they had at first to deal more extensively 
with barbarians fresh from the wilds of Africa ; another, and a leading one, 
the absenteeism of Proprietors. Agents are always more unfeeling than 
owners, whether placed over VVesi Indian or American slaves, or Irish Ten- 
antry. We feel this evil greatly even here. You describe the use of thumh 
screws as one mode of punishment among us. I doubt if a thumb screw can 
be found in America. I never saw or hoard of one in thiscountry. Stocks 
are rarely used by private individuals, and confinement still more seldom, 
though botli are common punishments for whites, all the world over. I think 
they should be more frequently resorted to with slaves, as substitutes for flog, 
ging, which I consider the most injurious and least efficacious mode of pun- 
ishing them for serious offences. It is not degrading, and unless excessive 
occasions little pain. You may be a little astonished, after all the flourishes 
that have been made about "cart whips," &c., when I say flogging is not the 
most degrading punishment in the world. It may be so to a white man in 
most countries, but how is it to the white boy ? That necessary coadjutor of 
the school-master the "birch" is never thought to have rendered infamous the 
unfortunate victim of pedagogue ire ; nor did Solomon iu his wisdom dream 
that he was counseling parents to debase their offspring, when he exhorted 
them not to spoil the child by sparing the rod. Pardon me for recurring to 
the now exploded ethics of the Bible. Custom, which, you will perhaps 
agree, makes most things in this world good or evil, has removed all infamy, 
from the punishment of the lash to the slave. Your blood boils at the recital 
of stripes inflicted on a man ; and you think you should be frenzied to see 
your own child flogged. Yet see how completely this is ideal, arising from 
the fashions of society. You doubtless submitted to the rod yourself, in other 
years, when the smart was perhaps as severe as it would be now ; and you 
have never been guilty of the folly of revenging yourself on the Preceptor 
who in the plenitude of his "irresponsible power" thought proper to chastise 
your son. So it is with the negro, and the negro father. 

As to chains and irons, they are rarely used ; never I believe except in 
cases of running away. You must admit that if we pretend to own slaves 
they must not be permitted to abscond whenever they see fit ; and that if 
nothing else will prevent it these means must be resorted to. See the inhu- 
manity necessarily arising from slavery, you will exclaim. Are such restraints 
imposed on no other class of people giving no more offence ? Look to your 
army and navy. If your seamen, impressed from their peaceful occupations. 



23 

and your soldiers, rccriiiteil at tiio gin shops — both of thorn as much kidnap- 
ped as the most imsuspectinn; victim of the Slave Trade, and doomed to a 
far more wretched fate — if these men manifest a propensity to desert, the 
heaviest manacl s arc their mildest punishment : It is most commonly death, 
after summary trial. But armies and navies you say arc indispensable, and 
must be kept up at every sacrifice. I answer that they arc no more indis- 
pensable than slavery is to us — and to you ; for you have enough of it in your 
country, though the form and name diff:r from ours. 

Depend upon it tliat many things, and in regard to our slaves, most things 
uliich a[)pear revultiug at a distance, and to slight reflection, would on a nearer 
view and impartial comparison with the customs and conduct of the rest of man- 
kind, strike you in a very different light. Remember that on our estates we 
dispense with the whole machinery of public police and public Courts of Justice. 
Thus we try, decide and execute the sentences, in thousands of cases, which in 
other countries would go into the Courts. Hence, most of the acts of our al- 
leged cruelt}', which have any foundation in truth. Whether our Patriarchal 
modeof administering justice is less humane than the Assizes can only be de- 
termined by careful inquiry and comparison. But this is never done by the 
Abolitionists. All our punishments are the outrages of "irresponsible power." 
if a man steals a pig in England he is transported — torn from wife, children, 
parents, and sent to the Antipodes, infimous, and an outcast forever, though 
jierhaps he took from the superabumlancc of iiis neighbjr to save the lives of 
his famishing little ones. If one of our well fed negroes, merely for the sake 
of fresh meat, steals a pig, ho gets perhaps forty stripes. If one of your 
Cottagers breaks into another's house, he is hung for burglary. If a slave does 
the same here, a few lashes, or perhaps a few hours in the stocks, settles the 
matter. Are our Courts or yours the most humane ? If slavery were not 
in question you would doubtless say ours is mistaken lenity. Perhips it often 
is ; and slaves too lightly dealt with sometimes grow daring. Occasionally, 
though rarely, and almost always in consequence of excessive indulgence, an 
individual rebels. This is the highest crime he can commit. It is treason. 
It strikes at the root of our whole system. His life is justly forfeited, though 
it is never intentionally taken, unless after trial in our Public Courts. Some- 
times, however, in capturing, or in self-defence, he is unfortunately killed. 
A legal investigation always follows. But, terminate as it may, tlie Aboli- 
tionists raise a hue and cry, and another "shocking case" is held up to the in- 
dignation of the W(M-ld by tender-hearted male and female Philanthropists, 
who would have thought all right had the master's throat been cut, and would 
have triumphed in it. 

I cannot go into a detailed comparison between the penalties inflicted on a 
slave in our Patriarchal Courts, and those of the Courts of Sessions to which 



24 

freemen are sentenced in all civilized nations ; but I know well that if there 
is any fault in our criminal code, it is that of excessive mildness. 

Perhaps a few general facts will best illustrate the treatment this race re- 
ceives at our hands. It is acknowledged that it increases at least as rapidly as 
the white. I believe it is an established principle, that population thrives in 
proportion to its comforts. But when it is considered that these people are 
not recruited by immigration from abroad as the whites are, and that they are 
usually settled on our richest and least healthy lands, the fact of iheir equal 
comparative increase and greater longevity, outweighs a thousand Abolition 
falsehoods, in favor of the leniency and providence of our management of 
them. It is also admitted that there are incomparably fewer casf s of insanity 
and suicide among them than among the whites. The fact is, that amoni'^ 
the slaves of the African race these things are almost wholly unknown. How- 
ever frequent suicide may have been among those brought from Africa, lean 
say that in my time I cannot remember to have known or heard cf a single 
instance of deliberate self destruction, and but of one of suicide at all. As 
to insanity, I have seen but one permanent case of if, and that twenty years 
ago. It cannot be doubted that among three millions of people there must 
be some insane and some suicides; but I will venture to say that more cases of 
both occur annually amongevery hundred thousand of the population of Great 
Britain than among all our slaves. Can it be possible, then, that they exist 
in that state of abject misery, goaded b}' constant injuries, outraged in their 
affections and worn down with hardships, which the Abolitionists depict, and 
so many ignorant and thoughtless persons religiously believe ? 

With regard to the separation of husbands and wives, parents and children, 
nothing can be more untrue than the inferences drawn from what is so con- 
stantly harped on by Abolitionists. Some painful instances perhaps may oc- 
cur. Very few that can be prevented. It is and it always has been an ob- 
ject of prime consideration with our slaveholders to keep families togctlier, 
Negroes are themselves both perverse and comparatively indifferent about 
this matter. It is a singular trait, that they almost invariably prefer forming 
connexions with slaves belonging to other masters, and at some distance. It 
is therefore impossible to prevent separations sometimes, by the removal of 
one owner, his death, or failure, and dispersion of his property. In all such 
cases, however, every reasonable effort is made to keep the parties together, 
if they desire it. And the negroes forming these connexions, knowing the 
chances of tlieir premature dissolution, rarely complain more than we all do 
of the inevitable strokes of fate. Sometimes it happens that a negro prefers to 
give up his family rather than separate from his master. I have known such in- 
stances. As to willfully selling ofT a husband or wife or child, I believe it is 
rarely, very rarely done, except when some offjnce has been committed de- 



25 

nianJing "transportation." At sales of Estates and even at SherifTs' sales, 
they arc always, if possible, sold in farnilius. On the whole, notwithstanding 
the migratory character of our population, I believe there are more families 
among our slaves, who have lived and died together without losing a singlo* 
member from their circle, except by the process of nature, and in the enjoy- 
mcnt of constant, uninterrupted communion, than have flourished in the same 
space of time and among the same number of civilized people in modern 
times. And to sum up all, if pleasure is correctly defined to be the absence 
of pain — which so far as the great body of mankind is concerned, is undoubt- 
edly its true definition — I believe our slaves are the happiest three millions 
of human beings on whom the sun shines. Into their Eden is coming Satan 
in the guise of an Abolitionist. 

As regards their religious condition, it is well known that a majority of 
the communicants of the Methodist and Baptist churches of the South are 
colored. Almost everywhere they have precisely the same opportunities of 
attending worship that the whites have, and besides, special occasions for 
themselves exclusively, which they prefer. In many places not so accessible 
to clergymen in ordinary, Missionaries are sent, and mainly supported by 
their masters, for the particular benefit of the slaves. There are none I 
imagine who may not, if they like, hear the Gospel preached at least once a 
month — most of them twice a month, and very many every week. In our 
thinly settled country the whites fare no better. But in addition to this, on 
plantations of any size the slaves who have joined the church are formed in- 
to a class, at the head of which is placed one of their number, acting as dea- 
con or leader, who is also sometimes a licensed preacher. This class as- 
sembles for religious exercises weekly, semi-weekly, or oftcner, if the mem- 
bers choose. In some parts also Sunday schools for blacks are established, 
and Bible classes are orally instructed by discreet and pious persons. Now 
where will you find a laboring population possessed of greater religious ad- 
vantages than these ? Not in London, I am sure, where it is known that 
your CKurchi.^s, Chapels and Religious Meeting Houses, of all sorts, cannot 
contain one-half of the inhabitants. 

I have admitted, without he.-itation, what it would be untrue and profiilesa 
to deny, that slave-holders arc responsible to the world for the humane treat- 
ment of the fellow-beings whom God has placed in their hands. I think it 
would be only fair for you to admit, what is equally undeniable, that every 
man in independent circumstances, all the world over, and every Government, 
is to the same extent responsible to ihe whole human family, f )r the condi- 
tion of the poor and laboring classes in their own country and around them, 
wherever they may be placed, to whom God has denied the advantages he 
has given themselves. If so, it would naturally seem the duty of true hu- 



26 

manlty and ratiouol j^hilanlhropy to devote their lime and labor, their thoughts, 
writings and ciiarity, first to the objects placed as it were under their own 
immediate charge. And it must be regarded as a clear evasion and sinful 
neglect of this cardinal duty, to pass from those whose destitute situation they 
can plainly see, minutely examine and efRciently relieve, to enquire after the 
condition of others in no way entrusted to their care, to exaggerate evils of 
which they cannot be cognizant, to expend all their sympathies and exhaust all 
their energies on these remote objects of their unnatural, nut to say dangerous, 
benevolence ; and finally, to calumniate, denounce and endeavor to excite the 
indignation of the world against their unoffending fellow-creatures for not 
hastening under their dictation to redress wrongs which arc stoutly and truth- 
fully denied, while they themselves go but little farther in alleviating those 
chargeable on ihem than openly and unbhishingly to acknowledge them. 
There may be indeed a sort of merit in doing so much as to make such an 
acknowledgement, but it must be vary modest if it expects appreciation. 

Now I aftirm that in Great Britain the poor and laboring classes of your 
own race and color, not only your fellow-beings, but your fellow ■citizens, are 
more m serable and degraded, morally and physically, than our slaves ; to be 
elevated to the actual condition of whom, would be to these yoiirfellozo-citizens 
a most glorious act of emancipation. And 1 also affirm, that the poor and la- 
boring classes of ouv older Free States would not be in a much more enviable 
condition but for our slavery. One of their own Senators has declared in the 
Uriited States Senate, "that the repeal of the Tariff would reduce New-Eng- 
l:md to a howling wilderness." And the American Tarilf is neither more 
nor less than a s)^stem by which the slave States are plundered for the bena- 
tit of those States which do not tolerate slavery. 

To prove what I say of Great Britain to be true, I make the following ex- 
tracts from the Reports of Commissioners appointed by Parliament, and pub- 
lished by order of the House of Commons. I can make but few and short 
ones. But similar quotations might be made to any extent, and 1 defy you to 
deny that these specimens exhibit the real condition of your operatives in 
every branch of your industry. There is of course a variety in their suffer- 
ings. But the same incredible amount of toil, friuhtful destitution, and utter 
want of morals, characterize the lot of every class of them. 

Collieries. "1 wish to call the attention of the Board to the pits about 
Brampton. The seams are so thin that several of them have only two feet 
hcad-way to all the working. They are wo: ked altogether by boys from 8 
to 12 years of age, on all-fours, with a dog belt and chain. The passages be- 
ing neither ironed nor wooded and often an inch or two thick M'ith mud. In 
Mr. Barnes' pit these poor boys have to drag the barrows with one cwt. of 
coal or slack 60 times a day 60 yards, and the empty barrows back, without 



27 

once straightening tliuir backs, unless they choose to stand luuler the sliaft 
and run the risk of having their heads broken by a falling cual." — Hep. mi 
Mines, 1842,/). 71. ''In Shropshire the seams are no more tlian 18 or 20 
jnchcs." — //;/(/, p. G7. "At the C>uth pit/' says Mr. Scriven, •'! walked, 
rode and crept 1800 yurds to one oi' tii(> nearest faces."' — Uid. "Choke- 
damp," Firedamp,"' "Wild tire," '"Sulpliur" and "Water" at all times men- 
ace instant death to the kiborcrs in these mines." ^'Robert Nortli, aged 16; 
Went into the pit at 7 years of age, to fill up skips. I drew about 12 months. 
When I dr(;w by the girdle and chain my skin was broken, and the blood ran 
down. I dur>t not say anything. If we said anything the butty, and th(; 
reeve, who works under him, would take a stick and beat us."' — L'jid. "The 
usual punishment for theft is to place the culprit's head between the legs of 
one of the biggest boys, and each boy in the pit — sometimes there are 20 — 
inflicts 12 lashes on the back and rump with a cat." — Ibid. "Instances oc- 
cur in which children are taken into these mines to work as early as 4 years of 
age, sometimes at 5, not unfrequently at 6 and 7, while from 8 to 9 is the or- 
dinary age at which these employments commence." — Ibid. The wages 
paid at these mines is from $2,50 to $7,50 per month for kiborcrs, accord- 
ing to age and ability, and out of this they must support themselves. They 
work 12 hours a day. — Ibid. 

In Calico printing. "It is by no means uncommon in all the districts for chil- 
dren 5 or 6 ytjars old to be kept at work 14 to 16 hours consecutively." — 
Ecp. on Children, 1842, p. 59. 

I could furnish extracts similar to these in regard to every branch of your 
Manufactures, but I will not multiply them. Every body knows that your 
operatives habitually labor from 12 to 16 hours, men, women and children, 
and the men occasionally 20 hours per day. In lace making, says the last 
quoted Report, children sometimes commence work at 2 years of age. 

Destitution. — It is stated by your Commissioners that 40,000 persons in Liv- 
erpool, and 15,000 in Manchester, live in cellars; while 22,000 in England 
pass the night in barns, tents, or the open air. " There have been found such 
occurrences as 7, 8 and 10 persons in one cottage, I cannot say for one day, 
but for whole days, without a morsel of food. They have remained on 
their beds of straw for two successive days, under the impression that in a 
recumbent posture the pangs of hunger were less felt." Lord Broiiglmm' s 
speech, lllh Juli/, 1842. A volume of frightful scenes might be quoted to 
corroborate the inferences to be necessarily drawn from the facts here stated. 
I will not add more, but pass on to the important inquiry as to 

Morals and Education. — '^Elizabeth Barrett, aged 14: I always work 
without stockings, shoes or trowsers. I wear nothing but a shift. I have to 
go up to the iieadings \vith the men. They are all naked there. I am got 



used to that." Report on Mines. " As to illicit sexual intercourse it seems 
to prevail universally and from an early period of life." " The evidence 
might have been doubled which attest the early commencement of sexual 
and promiscuous intercourse among boys and girls." " A lower condition 
of morals, in the fullest sense of the term, could not I think be found. 1 
do not mean by this that there are many more pron)inent vices among them, 
but that moral feelings and sentiments do not exist. They have no morals." 
" Their appearance, manners and moral natures — so far as the word moral 
can be applied to them — are in accordance will) their half-civilized condi- 
tion' — Rep. on Children. " More than half a dozen instances occurred in 
Manchester, where a man, his wife and his wife's grown up sister, habitually 
occupied the same bed.'' — Rep. on Sanitary Condition. Robert Cruchiloxc 
aged 16: "I dont know anything of Moses — never heard of France. I 
I dont know .what America is. Never heard of Scotland or Ireland. Cant 
tell how many weeks there are in a year. There are 12 pence in a shilling, 
and 20 shillings in a pound. Tnere are eight pints in a gallon of ale." — 
Rep. on Mines. Ann Eggly aged 18 : "I walk about and get fresh air on 
Sundays. I never go to Church or Chapel. I never heard of Christ at all." 
Ibid. Others: ''The Lord sent Adam and Eve on earth to save sinners." 
"I dont know who made the world, I never heard about God." "I dont 
know Jesus Christ — I never saw him — but I have seen Foster who prays 
about him." Employer : " You have expressed surpri.se at Thomas Mitchei's 
not hearing of God. Ijuilge there are few Colliers here about that have." 
Ibid. I will quote no more. It is shocking be3'ond endurance to turn over 
your Records in which the condition of your laboring classes is but too faith- 
fully depicted. Could our slaves but see it, they would join us in Lynching 
Abolitionists, which, by the by, they would not now be loth to do. We ne- 
ver think of imposing on them such labor, either in amount or kind. We 
never put them to any worJr. under ten, more generally at twelve years of 
age, and then the very lightest. Destitution is absolutely unknown — never 
did a slave starve in America ; while in moral sentiments and feelings, in 
religious information, and even in genc-ral intelligence, they are infinitely 
the superiors of your operatives. When you look around you how dare you 
talk to us before the world of slavery ? For the condition of your wretched 
laborers, you, and every Briton who is not one of them, are responsible be- 
fore God and Man. If you are really humane, philanthropic and charitable, 
here are objects for you. Relii've them. Emancipate them. Raise them 
from the condition of brutes, to the level of human beings — of American 
slaves, at least. Do not for an instant suppose that the naiiie of being free- 
men is the slightest comfort to them, situated as they are, or that the bom- 
bastic boast that "whoever touches British soil stands redeemed, regenerated 



29 

and disenthralled," can meet with anything but the ridicule and contempt of 
mankind, while that soil swarms, both on and under its surface, wilii tlie 
most abject and degraded wretches that ever bjwed beneath the oppressor's 
yoke. 

I have said that slavery is an established and inevitable condition to human 
society. I do not speak of the name, but the /act. The Marquis of Nor- 
manby has lately declared your operatives to be " z/i effect slaves,^' Can it 
be denied? Probably, for such Philanthropists as your Abolitionists care 
nothing for facts. They deal in terms and fictions. It is tlie word "slavery" 
which shocks their tender sensibilities ; and their imaginations associate it 
with =' hydras and chimeras dire." The tiling itself, in its most hideous reali- 
ty, passes daily under their view unheeded — a familiar face, touching no 
chord of shame, sympathy or indignation. Yet so brutalizmg is your iron 
bondage that the English operative is a bye word through the world. When 
favoring fortune enables him lo escape his prison house, both in Europe and 
America he is shunned. With all the skill which 14 hours of daily labor 
from the tenderest age has ground into him, his discontent, which habit has 
made second nature, and his depraved propensities, running riot when freed 
from his wonted fetters, prevent his employment whenever it is not a matter 
of necessity. If we derived no other benefit from African slavery in the 
Southern Stales than that it deterred your frecdmen from coming hither, I 
should regard it as an inestimable blessing. 

And how unaccountable is that philanthrophy, which closes its eyes upon 
such a state of things as you have at home, and turns its blurred vision to 
our affairs beyond the Atlantic, meddling v.'ith matters which no way con- 
cern them — presiding, as you have lately done, at meetings to denounce the 
*' iniquity of our laws" and "the atrocity cf our practices," and to sympathise 
with infamous wretches imprisoned here for violating decrees promulgated 
both by God and man. Is this doing the work of "your Father which is in 
Heaven," or is it seeking only "that you may have glory of man ?" Do you re- 
member the denunciation of our Saviour, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Phari- 
sees ; Hypocrites ! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and platter, bu: 
within they are full of extortion and excess." 

But after all, supposing that everything you say of slavery be true, and 
its abolition a matter of the last necessity, how do you expect to effect emanci- 
pation, and what do you calculate will be the result of its accomplishment ? As 
to the means to be used, the Abolitionists, I believe, affect to differ, a lar^e 
proportion of them pretending that their iole purpose is to apply '* moral 
suasion" to the Slave-holders themselves. As a matter of curiosity, I should 

like to know what their idea of this "moral suasion" is. Their discourses 

yours is no exception — are all tirades, the exordium, argument and perora- 



30 

lion, turning on the epithets "tyrniits" "thieves," " murJereis," addressed 
to us. They rovile us as '■ atrocious monsters," "violators of tho laws of 
nature, God and man," our homes the abode of every iniquity, our land a 
'•brothel." We retort, that they are '• incendiaries" and "assassins." De- 
iiglitfu! argument ! Sweet, potent "moral suasion I" What slave has it freed 
•>— what procselyt.e can it ever make? Cut if your course was wholly different'— ' 
if you distilled nectar from your lips, and discoursed sweetest music, could 
you reasonably indulge the hope of accomplishing your object by such means ? 
INay, supposing that we were all convinced, and thought of slavery precisely 
as you do, at what era of "moral suasion" do you imagine you could pre- 
vai! on us to give up a tho'.j.sand milliuna of dollars in the value of our j-laves, 
and a thousand milHun?-. of dollars more in the depreciation of our lauds, in 
consequence of the want of laborers to cultivate them ? Consider : were ever 
any people, civilized or savage persuaded by any aiguraent. Human or 
Divine, to surrender voluntarily two thousand millions of dollars? Would 
you think of asking five millions of Englishmen to contribute cither at once 
or gradually four hundred and fifty millions of poimds sterling to the cause 
of Piiilanthropy, even if the purpose to be accomplished was not of doubtful 
g<»ouness? If you are prepared to undertake such a scheme, try it at home. 
Collect your fund— purchase our slaves, and do with them as you like. Be all 
tile glory yours, fairly and honestly won. But you see the absurdity of such 
an idea. Away, then, with your pretended " mural suasion." You know 
it is mere nonsense. The Abolitionists have no faith in it themst Ives. 
Those who expect to accomplish anything count on nicans altogether differ- 
ent. They aim first, to alarm us: that failing, to compel us by force to 
emancipate our slaves, at our own lisk and cost. To these purposes they 
ohviousl}' direct all thi:ir energies. Our Northern Liberty men have endea- 
von-d to dissemin:itc their destructive doctrinos among our slaves, and ex- 
cite them to insurrection. But we have [)ut an end to that, and stricken 
terror into them. They dare not show their faces here. Then they declar- 
ed they would dissolve the Union. Let them do it. The North would re- 
pent it far more than the South. We arc not alarmed at the idea. Wo are 
well content to give up the Utiion soonefthan s.'.crifice two thousand millions 
of dollars, and with them all the rights we prize. Vou may take it for grant* 
ed that it is impossible to persuade or alarm us into emancipation, or to mak- 
ing the first step towards if. Notlnng, then, is left to try, but sheer force. 
If tho Ab.Jilionists arc prepared to expend their own treasure and shed their 
ov.'Q blood as freely as they ask us to do ours, let them come. Wc do not court 
the conflict; but wc will not and wo cannot shrink from it. If they are not 
ready to go so far: if, as ! expect, th^ir philanthropy recoils from it: if they 
are looking only for cheap glory, Itt thetn turn their thoughts elsewhere, 



31.,. 

hnd Inrivo us in peace. Bo the sin, ilie danger and the evils of slavery all 
cur own. We coiiipel, we ask none to share them with us. 

I am well aware that a notable sciicnie has been set on foul to achieve abo- 
liiion by making what is by Courtesy called "free" labor so much cheaper 
than slave labor as to force the abandonment of the latter. Thougli we are 
beginning lo mnnnj'aciurc with slaves, I do not think you will attempt to pinch 
your operatives closer in Great Britain. You cannot curtail the rags with 
which they vainly attempt to cover their nakedness, nor reduce the porridge 
which bandy, and not always, keeps those who have employment from per* 
isfiing of famine. Wlicn you can do tliis, we will consider whether our 
slaves may not dispense with a pound or two of bacon per week, or a fe.v 
garments annually. Your aim, however, ia to cheapen labor in the tropics. 
The idea of doing this by exporting your *' bold yeomanry" is I presume 
given up. Cromwell tried it when he sold the captured followers of Ch irles 
iiito West Indian slavery, where they speedily fjund graves* Nor have 
vour recent experiments on British and even Dutch constitutions succeeded 
better. Have you still faith in carrying lliither your Coolies from Hindostan 1 
Doubtless that once wild robber race, whose highest culogium was that they 
did not murder merely for the love of bloody have been tamed dowuj and are 
perliaps "keen for immigration," ibr since your civilization has reached it. 
plunder has grown scarce in Guzt;rat. But that is the result of the experi- 
ment thus far? Have the Coolies, ceasing to handle arms, learned to handle 
spades, and ))roved hardy and profitable laborers? On thf; contrary, broken 
in spirit and stricken with disease at home, the wretched victims whom you 
have hitherto kidnapped for a bounty, confined in depots, put under hatches 
and carried across the ocean-'^forced into "voluntary immigration," have done 
little but lie down and die on the pseudo soil of freedom. At the end of five 
yca-'s two- thirds, in some colonies a kirgcr proportion, are no more ! Hu^ 
mane and pious contrivance ! To alleviate the fancied sufferings of the ac- 
cursed posterity of Ham, you sacrifice by a cruel death two-tliirds of the 
children of the blessed Shem — and demand the applause of Christians — the 
blessing of Heaven! If tliis "expi.-rimcnt" is to go on, in God's name try 
your hand upon the Thugs. That other species of •• Immigration" to which 
you are i-esorting I will consider presently. 

But what do you calculate will be the result of emancipation, by v,h:<t- 
cver means accomplished ? You will probably point me, by way of answer, 
to the West Indies — djubtlc-ss to Antigua, the great boast of abolition. Ad- 
milling that it has succeeded there — wiiich i will do for the sake of the ar- 
gument — do you know ihe reason of it ? The true and only causes of 
whatever success has attended it in Anligua are, that the population was be- 
fore crowded, and all or nearly all the arable land in cultivation* The cmaa- 



32 

cipated negroes could not, many of them, get away if they desired ; and knew 
not where to go, in case they did. They had practically no alternative but to 
remain on the spot ; and remaining, they must work on the terms of the 
Proprietors, or perish-^the strong arm of the Mother Country forbidding 
all hope of seizing the Land for themselves. The Proprietors, well knowing 
liiat tiiey could thus command labor for the merest necessities of life, which 
was much cheaper than maintaining the non-effective as well as effective 
slaves in a style which decency and interest, i( not lumanity required, willing. 
!y accepted half their value, and at once realized far more than the interest on 
the other half in the diminution of their expenses, and the reduced comforts of 
the freemen. One ot your mosi illustrious Judges, who was also a profound and 
philosophical Historian, has said "that Villeinage was not abolished, but went 
into decay in England." This was the process. This has been the process 
wherever (the name of) Villeinage or Slavery has been successfully aban- 
doned. Slavery in fact " went into decay " in Antigua. I have admitted 
that under similar circumstances it might profitably cease here — that is, 
profitably to the individual Proprietors. Give me half the value of my 
Slaves, and compel them to remain and labour on my plantation at 10 to 11 
cents a day, as they do in Antigua, supporting themselves and families, and 
you shall have them to-morrow, and if you like dub them "free." Not to 
stickle, I would surrender them without price. No— I recall my words: My 
humanity revolts at the idea. I am attached to my Slaves, and would not 
have art or part in reducing them to such a condition. I deny, however, that 
Antigua, as a community, is or ever will bo as prosperous under present cir- 
cumstances, as she was before abolition, though fully ripe for it. The fact is 
well known. The reason is that the African, if not a distinct, is an inferior 
Race, and never will effect, as it never has effected, as much in any other condi- 
tion as in that of Slavery. 

I know of no Slave-holder who has visited the West Indies since Slavery 
was abolished, and published /i/s viewsof it. Ail our facts and opinions come 
through the friends of the experiment, or at least those not opposed to it. 
Taking these, even without allowance, to be true as stated, I do not see where 
the Abolitionists find cause for exultation. The tables of exports, which arc 
the best evidences of the condition of a people, exhibit a woful falling off- 
excused, it is true, by unprecedented droughts and hurricanes, to which their 
free labor seems unaccountably more subject than Slave-labour used to be. 
I will not go into detail. It is well known that a large proportion of British 
Legislation and expenditure, and that proportion still constantly increasing, 
IS most anxiously devoted to repairing the monstrous error of emancipation. 
You are actually galvanizing your expiring Colonies. The truth, deduced from 
ull the facts, was thus pithily stated by the London Quarterly Review, as long 



33 

ago as 1940 : " None of the benefits anticipated by mistaken good intentions 
have been realized, while every evil wished for by knaves and foreseen by 
the wise has been painfully verified. The wild rashness of fanaticism has 
made the emancipation of the Slaves equivalent to the loss of one half of ihu 
West Indies, and yet [)Ut back the chance of Negro civilization." (Art. Ld. 
Badley's Lrllers.) Such are the real f nil t-i of your ncver-to-bc-loo-miich-glo- 
rified abolition, and the valuable dividend of your twenty millions of pounds 
sterling invested therein. 

If any farther proof was wanlt.-d of the ultcr and well known tiiough not yet 
openly avowed failure of West Indian emancipation, it would bo furnished by 
the startling f^^ct, that the Afiucan Slavk Trade has bp:en actually 

HF.VIVED UNDER THE AUSPICES AND PROTECTlOiN OF THE BRITISH GoVERNMEXT. 

Under the specious guise of " Immigration" they are replenishing those Islands 
with Slaves from the Coast of Africa. Your colony of Sierra Leone, founded 
on that coast to prevent tlio Slave Trade, and peopled by the bye in the first 
instanxJe by negroes stolen from these States during tlie Revolutionary War, 
in the Depot where captives taken from Slavers by your armed vessels are 
transported. I might say returned, since nearly half the Africans carried 
across the Atlantic are understood to be embarked in this vicinity. The 
wretched survivors, who are there set at liberty, are immediately seduced to 
''immigrate" to the West Indies. The business is systematically carried on 
by Black " Delegates," sent expressly from the West Indies, where on arrival 
the " immigrants" are sold in'o Slavery for twenty-one years, under conditions 
ridiculously trivial and wickedly void, since few or none will ever be able to 
derive any advantage from them. The whole prime of life thus passed in 
bondage, it is contemplated, and doubtless it will be carried into elTec:, to turn 
them out in their old age to shift for themselves, and to supply their places 
with fVesh and vigorous " Immigrants." Was ever a system of Slavery so 
barbarous devised before ? Can you think of comparing \\. v.-ith ours ? V.vpu 
your own Religious Missionaries at Sierra Leone denounce it " as worse tiian 
the Sl.jve state in Africa." And your Black Delegates, fearful of the in- 
fluence of these Missionriric?, as well as on account of the inadfcjuate supply 
of Captives, arc now preparing to procure the able bodied and conijjaiatively 
industrious Kroomen of the interior, by piirckasing from their Headmen ihp 
privilege of inveigling them lo tiic West India market I S:» ends t'lo magfiifi- 
ccnt farce — perhaps I should say tr.igedy, of West India Abolition ! I will not 
harrow your feelings by asking yon to review the labar.s of } our iife and tell 
me what you and your brother Enlhu-iiasls have accomplished for " injured 
Africa," but while agreeing wirh Lord Stov/cll, that*'Vd!einage (!.caye'I."and 
admitting that Slavery might do so also, 1 think I am fully jtislified by ])assed 
and passing events in .saying, as -Mr. t:'ro:svsnor said of the Slaw T-'-ade, that 
its aboHtion is " impo.ssible.'' 
3 



34 

You are greatly mistaken, however, if you think that the consequences of 
emancipation here, would be similar and no more injurious than those which 
followed from it in your little sea-girt West India Islands, where nearly all 
were blacks. The system of slavery is not in " decay" with us. It 
flourishes in full and growing vigor. Our country is boundless in extent. 
Dotted here and there with villages and fields, it is for the most part cov- 
ered with immense forests and swamps of almost unknown size. In such a 
country, with a people so restless as ours, communicating of course some of 
that spirit to their domestics, can you conceive that anything short of the 
power of the master over the slave, could confine the African race, notoriously 
idle and improvident, to labor on our plantations? Break this bond, but for a 
day, and these plantations will be solitudes. The negro loves change, novelty 
and sensual excitements of all kinds, when atvake. "Reason and order," of 
which Mr. Wilberfoece said " liberty was the child," do not characterize 
him. Released from his present obligations his first impulse would be to 
go somewhere. And here no natural boundaries would restrain him. At 
first they would all seek the towns, and rapidly accumulate in squalid groups 
upon their outskirts. Driven thence by the " armed police" which would 
immediately spring into existence, they would scatter in all directions. — 
Some bodies of them might wander towards the "free" States, or to the west- 
ern wilderness, marking their tracks by their depredations and their corpses. 
Many would roam wild in our "Big woods." Many more would seek the re- 
cesses of our swamps for secure covert. Few, very few of them could 
be prevailed on to do a stroke of work, none to labor continuously, while a 
head of cattle, sheep or swine could be found in our ranges, or an ear of 
corn nodded in our abandoned fields. These exhausted, our folds and poul- 
try yards, barns and store-houses would become their prey. Finally, cur 
scattered dwellings would be plundered, perhaps fired and the inmates mur- 
dered. How long do you suppose that we could bear these things? How 
long would it be before we should sleep with rifles at our bedsides, and 
never move without one in our hands ? This work once begun, let the 
story of our British ancestors and the aborigines of this country tell the 
sequel. Far more rapid however, would be the catastrophe. "Ere many 
moons went by," the African race would be exterminated, or reduced 
again to slavery, their ranks recruited, after your example, by fresh *'Emi. 
grants" from their father land. 

Is timely preparation and gradual emancipation suggestt.d to avert these 
horrible consequences? 1 thought your experience in the West Indies had 
at least done so much as to explode that idea. If it failed there, much 
more would it fail here, where the two races, approximating to equality in 
numbers, are daily and hourly in the closest contact. Give room for but 



a single spark of real jealousy to be kinillecl between them, and the explosion 
would be instantaneous and universal. It is the most fatal of all fallacies to 
suppose that these two races can exist together, after any length of time or 
any process of preparation, on terms at all approaching to equality. Of 
this, both of them are finally and fixedly convinced. They differ essentially, 
in all the leading traits whicii characterize the varieties of the human species, 
and color draws an indelible and insuperable line of separation between them. 
Every scheme founded upon the idea that they can remain together 
on the same soil, beyond the briefest period, in any other relation than pre- 
cisely that which now subsists belvvren them, is not only preposterous, but 
fraught with deepest danger. If there was no alternative but to try the 
** experiment" here, reason and hum.anity dictate that the sufferings of " grad- 
ualism" should be saved and the catastrophe of" immediate abolition," enact- 
ed as rapidly as possible. Arc you impatient for the performance to com- 
mence ? Do you long to gloat over the scenes T have suggested, but 
could not hold the pen to portray ? In your long lilc many such have 
passed under your review. You know that the^ are not ^^ impossible. ^^ Can 
they be to your taste? Do you believe that in laboring to bring them 
about the Abolitionists are doing the will of God ? No ! God is not 
tiiere. It is the work of Satan. The Arch-fiend, under specious guises, 
has found his way into their souls, and with false appeals to philanthropy, 
and foul insinuations to ambition, instigates them to rush headlong to the 
accomplishment of his diabolical designs. 

We live in a wonderful age. The events of the last tlu'ce quarters of a 
century appear to have revolutionized the human mind. Enterprise and 
ambition are only limited in their purposes by the horizon of the imagination. 
It is the transcendental era. In philosophy, religion, government, science, 
arts, commerce, rothi gthat has been is to be allowed to be. Conservatism 
in any form is scoffed at. The slighcst taint of it is fatal. Where will all this 
end ? If you can tolerate one ancient maxim let it be that the best criterion 
of the Future is the Past. That, if anything, will give a clue. And, look- 
ing back only through your time, what was the earliest feat of this same 
Transcendentalism? The rays of the new Moral Drummond Light were first 
concentrated to a focus at Paris, to illuminate the Universe. In a twinkling 
it consumed the political, religious, and social systems of France. It could 
not be extinguished there until literally drowned in blood. And then from 
its ashes arose that supernatural man, who, for twenty years kept affrighted 
Europe in convulsions. Since that time its scattered beams, refracted by 
broader surfaces, have nevertheless continued to scathe wherever they have 
fallen. What political structure, what religious creed, but has felt the gal- 
vanic shock, and even now trembles to its foundations ? Mankind, still horror- 



3^ 

strickf n by the catastroplie of France, have shruiik from rash csperlmefit? 
upon social s3-stem3. But t: ey have been practising in the East, around the 
Mediterranean, and through the West India Islands. And growing confi- 
dent, a portion of them sccm desperately bent on kindling, tlic aH-devouringt 
flame in the bosonn of our hmd. L(;t it once again blaze up to heaven and 
another cycle of blood and dtvaslalion will dawn upon t!:e world. For 
our sake, and for the sake of those infatuated men who are madly drivinT 
on the conflagration ; (or the sake of human nature, we are called on to strain 
every nerve to arrest it. And Ijc assured our efForts will be bounded only 
with our being. Nor (Jo I doubt that five millions of people, hrave^ intelii* 
gent, united, and prepared to hazard every thing, will, in such a cause, with 
th<3 blessing of God, suslaia themselves. At ail evcnti; come what may, it i.-i 
ours to meet it. 

We arc well aware of the light estimation in which the Abolitionists, anif 
those who are t.ii'.glu !>y them, profess to hold us. We have seen the 
attempt of a portion of the Free Church of Scotland to reject our alms, on the 
ground tliat we are "Slave-Drivers," after sending missionaries to solicit them. 
And we have seen Mr. O'Connell, liic "irresponsible master" of millions of 
ragged serfs, from v.ham, pover'y stricken as they are, he contrives to wring, 
a splendid privy jjurse, throw hack with contumely the" tribute" of his owir 
countrymen from this land of "rni.screant.s." These people may exhaust their 
slang and make hlack-guards of thciiis(dvc3, but they cannot defile us. 
And as for the suggestion to exclude slaveholders, from your London clubs, 
we scout it. Many of us, indeed, do go to London, and we have 5een vour bret ?! 
of gawky Lords, both there and hero, but it never en5e;eA into our concep- 
tions to look on them as better than ourselves. Nor can we be annoyed by the 
ridiculous airs of such upstarts as your O'Connell.s. Ritchies, Macaulay.^-,. 
and the like. The American slave .holders, collectively ar individually, ash 
no favors of any manor race who tread the earili. In none of theaUributr.v 
of men, mental or physical, do they acknowltidgn. or fear supi.-riority else- 
where. They stand in tliu broadtst light, of the knowledge, civilixation and 
improvement of the age^ as n.urh favored of Heaven as any of the sons 
of Adam. F.xacting nothing uud'.K-, they yield nothing but justice and 
courtesy, even to u.yvA Woori. Th. y can neither he fliitlered, du[ied, nor 
bullied out of their rights ov their proprii ty. 'J^he^' smile with contempt at 
scurrility and vapouring beyond Uii? seas, and they turn th(-ir backs upon ii 
where it is "irresponsible;", but ins-jience tliat venturea to look tiiem in the 
fiice, will never fail to be c!»astised. 

I think I rnny tru^t you will not regard this letter an intrii.sive. ! should 
never have entertained an idea of writing it, had ynu not opened the cor. 
respoudence. If yeul!»ink ur.ything in it harsl», review your own — which S 



37 

rogi-ct that Host soon after it was received — and you will prob;i!)ly find t'liat 
you h:ivc taken your revenge beforehand. If you have not, transfer an equi- 
table share of what you deem severe to the account of the Abolitionists at 
large. They have accutnulated against the slaveholders a balance of invec- 
tive which, with all our efforts, we shall net be able to liquidate much short of 
the era in which your National debt will be paid. At all events, I have no 
desire to offend you personally, and, with the best wislses for your continued 
health, I have t'.ie honor to bo, 

Your obedient servant, 



II. II. \M MONO. 



Tiios. Clarkso-v, Esq, 



Silver Bluff, S. C, March 24, 1845. 
Siu : — In mv letter to you of tlie 2Sth January — wiiich I trust you have 
received ere this — I mentioned that I had lost your circular letter soon after 
it had come to hand. It was, I am glad to say, only mislaid, and has within 
a few days been recovered. A second perusal of it induces me to resume 
my pen. Unwdling to tru5t my recollections from a single reading, I did not 
in my last communication attempt to follow the course of your argument, and 
meet directly the points made and the terms used. I thought it better to take a 
general view of the subject which could not fail to traverse your most material 
charges. I am well aware however tliat, for fear of being tedious, I omit- 
ted many ititeresting topics altogether, and abstained from a complete dis- 
cussion of some of those introduced. I do not propose now to exhaust the 
subject; which it would require volumes to do; but without waiting to learn — 
which I may never do — your opinion of what I have already said, I sit down 
to supply some of the deficiencies of my letter of January, and, with your 
circular before mc, to reply to such parts of it as have not been fully answered. 
It is, I perceive, addressed among others to ♦• such as have never visited 
the Southern States" of this confederacy, and professes to enlighten Iheir 
ignorance of the actual "condition of the pjor slave in their own country." 
I cannot help thinking you would have displayed prudence in confining the 
circulation of your letter altogether to such persons. You might then have 
indulged with impunity in giving, as you have done, a picture of slavery drawn 
from your own e.xcitcd imagination, or from those impure fountains, the Mar- 
lincaus, Marryatts, TroUopes and Dickenses, who have profited by catering, 
at our e.vpense, to the jealous sensibilities and debauched tastes of your coun- 
trymen. Admitting that you are familiar with the history of slavery and iho 
past discussions of it. as I did, I now thmk rather broadly, in my former let- 



38 

ter, what can you know of the true condition of the "poor slave" here? I am 
not aware that you have ever visited this country, or even the West Indies. 
Can you suppose that because you have devoted your life to the investigation 
of the subject — commencing it under the influence of an enthusiasm so mel- 
ancholy at first and so volcanic afterwards as to be nothing short of hallu- 
cination — pursuing it as m;'n of one idea do everything, with tlic single pur- 
pose of establishing your own view of it — ^gathering your information from 
discharged seamen, disappointed speculators, factious politicians, visionary 
reformers and scurrilous tourists — opening your cars toevery species of com- 
plaint, exaggeration and falsehood that interested ingenuity could invent, and 
never for a moment questioning the truth of anything that could make for your 
cause — can you suppose that al! this has qualified you, living the while in Eng- 
land, to form or approximate towards the formation of a correct opinion of 
the condition of slaves among us? I know the po'ver of self-delusion. I have 
not the least doubt that you think yourself the very best informed man alive on 
this subject, and that many think so likewise. So far as focts go, even after 
deducting from your list a great deal that is not fact, I will not deny that pro- 
bably your collection is the most extensive in existence. But as to the Iruth 
in regard to slavery, there is not an adult in this region but knows more of it 
than you do. Truth txndfaci are, you are aware, by no means synonimous 
terms. Ninety-nine facts may constitute a falsehood: the hundredth, add.d 
or alone, gives tb.e truth. With all your knowledge of facts, I undertake to 
say that you are entirely and grossly ignorant of the real condition of our 
slaves. And from all that I can see, you are equally ignorant of the essen- 
tial principles of human association revealed in history, both sacred and pro- 
fane, on which slavery rests, and which will perpetuate it forever in some 
form or other. However you may declaim against it ; however powerfully 
you may array atrocious incidents; whatever appeals you may make to the 
heated imaginations and tender sensibilities of mankind, believe mo, your 
total blindness to the ichole truth, which alone constitutes the truth, incapa- 
citates you from ever making an impression on the sober reason and sound 
common sense of the world. You may seduce thousands — ^j'ou can convince 
no one. Whenever and wherever you or the advocates of your cause can 
arouse the passions of the weakminded and the ignorant, and, bringing to 
bear with them the interests of the vicious and unprincipled, overwhelm com- 
mon sense and reason — as God sometimes permits to be done — you may tri- 
umph. Such a trium|)h we have witnessed in Great Britain. But I trust it 
is far distant here : Nor can it from its nature be extensive or endur ng. 
Other classes of Reformers, animated by the same spirit as the Abolitionists, 
attack the institution of marriage, and even the established relations of Pa- 
rent and Child. And they collect instances of barbarous cruelty and shock- 



ing degradation which rival, if they do not throw into the shade, your slavery 
statistics. But the rights of marriage and parental authority rest upon truths 
us obvious as they are unchangeable — coming home to every human being, — 
scIf-imprcsscd forever on tiie individual mind, and cannot be shaken until the 
whole man is corrupted, nor subverted until civilized society becomes u putrid 
mass. Domestic slavery is not so universally understood, nor can it make 
such a direct appeal to individuals or society beyond its pale. Here, pre- 
judice and passion have room to sport at the expense of others. They may 
be excited and urged to dangerous action, remote from the victims they mark 
out. They may, as they have done, effect great mischief, but they cannot 
be made to maintain, in the long run, dominion over reason and common 
sense, nor ultimately put down what God has ordained. 

You deny however that slavery is sanctioned by God, and your chief ar- 
gument is that when he gave to Adam dominion over the fruits of the earth 
and the animal creation he stopped there. " He never gave him any further 
right over his fellow men." You restrict the descendants of Adam to a very 
short list of rights and powers, duties and responsibilities, if you limit them 
solely to those conferred and enjomed in the first chapter of Genesis. It is 
very obvious that in this narrative of the creation Moses did not have it in 
view to record any part of the Law intended for the government of man in 
his social or political state. Eve was not yet created ; the expulsion had not 
yet taken place ; Cain was unborn ; and no allusion whatever is made to the 
manifold decrees of God to which these events gave rise. The only serious 
answer this argument deserves is to say, what is so manifestly true, that 
God's not expressly giving to Adam " any right over his fellow men" by no 
means excluded Him from conferring that right on his desccndunts ; which he 
in fact did. We know that Abraham, the chosen one of God, exercised it 
and held property in his fellow man, even anterior to the period when pro- 
perty in land was acknowledged. We might infer that God had authorised 
it. But we are not reduced to inference or conjecture. At the hazard of 
fatiguing you by repetition, 1 will again refer you to the ordinances of the 
scriptures. Innumerable instances might be quoted where God has given 
and commanded men to assume dominion over their fellow men. But one 
will suffice. In the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus you w\\\ Cmd Dotnesdc 
SInvery — ■precisely such as is maintained at this day in these States — ordained 
and established by God, in language which I defy you to pervert so as to leave 
a doubt on any honest mind that this institution teas founded by Him, and de- 
creed to be perpetual. I quote the words : 

Leviticus, 25 ch. 44 v. : *' Both tiiy Bondmen and thy Bondmaids which 
thou shalt have, shall be of the Heathen [Africans] that are round about you ; 
of them ye shall buy Bondmen and Bondmaids. 



40 

45: Moreover, of tho children of the strangers that do sojourn amontr 
you, of Ihem shall ye buy, and of their families that are with ijou which they 
begat ill your hmd [descendants of Africans ?] and they sha'l be your pos- 
session." 

46 : " And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, 
to inherit them for a possession. They shall be your Bondmen forever." 

What human Legislature could make a decree more full and explicit than 
this? What court of Law or Chancery could defeat a title to a slave couched 
in terms so clear and complete as these ? And this is the Law of God, whom 
you pretend to worship, while you denounce and traduce us for respecting it. 

It seems scarcely credible, but the fact is so, that you deny this Law so 
plainly written, and in the face of it, have the hardihood to declare that 
" though slavery is m A specifically, yet it is virtually forhidden in the scrip- 
tures, because all the ciimes which necessarily arise out of slavery, and which 
can arise from no other source, are reprobated there and threatened with di- 
v-ne vengeance." Such an unworthy subterfuge is scarcely entitled to con- 
wideration. But its gross absurdity may be exposed in few words. I do not 
know what crimes you particularly allude to as arising from slavery. But 
you will perhaps admit — not because they are denounced in the decalogue, 
v/hich the Abolitionists respect only so far as they choose, but because it is 
the inwiediate interest of most men to admit — that disobedience !.o parents, 
adultery, and stealing, are crimes. Yet these crimes "necesrsarily arise from" 
the relations of parent and child, marriage, and the possession of private pro- 
perty ; at least they "can arise from no other sources." Then, according to 
your argutnent, it is " virtually forbidden" to marry, to beget children, and to 
hold private property ! Nay it is forbidden to live, since murder can only be 
perpetrated on living subjects. You add that " in the same way the gladia- 
torial shows of old, and other barbarous customs, were not specifically for- 
bidden in the New Testament, and yet Christianity was the sole means of 
their suppression." This is very true. But these shows and barbarous cus- 
toms thus suppressed, were not authorised by God. They were not ordained and 
commanded by God for the benefit of His chosen people and mankind, as 
the purchase and holding of Bondmen and !^]ondmaids were. Had they been 
they would never have been " suppressed by Christianity" any more than 
slavery can be by your party. Although Christ came "not to destroy but ful- 
fil the Law" he neverthess did formally abrogate some of the ordinances 
promulgated by Moses, and all such as were at war with his mission of 
"peace and good will on earth." He "specifically" annuls, for instance, 
one "barbarous custom" sanctioned by those ordinances, where he says : "ye 
have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth ; 
but I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on 



41 

the riglit c'lcck turn to him the other, also." Now, in the time of Chi-ist it 
was usual for masters to puttixiir slaves to death on the sh'ghtcst provocation. 
They even killed and cut them up to feed their fishes. He was undoubtedly 
aware of these things, as well as of the Law and Comnnndmcnt I have quot- 
ed. Ho could only have been restrained from denouncing them, as he did the 
•'Zex talionis," because he knew that in despite of these barbarities the insti- 
tution ol slavery was at the battom a sound and wholesome as well as lawful 
one. Certain it is, that in His wisdom and puri'.y he did not see proper to 
interfere with it. In your wisdom, however, you make the sacrilegious at- 
tempt to overthrow it. 

You quote the denunciation of Tyre and Sidon, and say that "the chief 
reason given by the Prophet Joel for their destruction, was, that they were 
notorious beyond all others for carrying or> the Slave Trade." I am afraid 
you think we have no Bibles in the slave States, or that we are unable lo 
read them. I cannot otherwise account for your making this reference, un- 
less indeed your own reading is confined to an expurgated edition, prepared 
for the use of Abolitiuiiists, in which everything relating to slavery that mili- 
tates against their view of it is left out. The Tropliet Joel denounces the 
Tyriansand Sidonians because " Tlie children also of Judah and the children 
of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians." And what is the divine ven- 
geance for this " notorious slave tn.ding?" Hearit. "Audi will sell your 
sons and daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall 
sell them to the Sabcans, to a people far off; for the Lord hath spoken i'-" 
Do you call this a condemnation of slave-trading? The Prophet makes God 
Himself a participator in the crime, if that be one. "The Lord hath spoken 
it," he says, that the Tyrians and Sidonians shall be sold into slavery to 
strangers. Their real ofTence, was in enslaving the Chosen People ; and their 
sentence was a repetition of the old Command, to make slaves of the "Hea- 
then round about." 

I have dwelt upon your scriptural argument because you profess to believe 
the Bible ; because a large proportion of the Abolitionists profess to do the 
same, and to act under its s motion; because your Circular is addressed in 
part to " professing Christians ;" and because it is from thai class mainly that 
you expect to seduce converts by your anti-chr.stian, I may say, infidel doc- 
trines. It would be w'nolly unnecessary lo answer you to any one who reads 
the scriptures for himself, and construes them according to any other formu- 
la than tiiat which the Abolitionists are wickedly endeavoring to impose upon 
the world. The scriptu:al sanction of slavery is in fact so palpable, and so 
strong, that both wings of you;- party are beginning to acknowledge it. The 
more sensible and moderate admit, as the orgin of ihe Free Church of Scot- 
land, the North British Review, has lately done, that they ^' are precluded 



42 

by the stalemenis and conduct of the Apostles from regarding mere slave-hold, 
ing as essentially sinful" while the desperate and reckless, who are beni on 
keeping up the agitation at every hazard, declare, as has been done in the 
Anti-Slavery Record, "If our inquiry turns out in favor of slavery, it is the 
Bible that jiust fall, and not the rights of human natoee." You 
cannot, I am satisfied, much longer maintain before the world, the Christian 
platform from which to wage war upon our Institutions. Driven from it, you 
must abandon the contest, or, repudiating Revelation, rush into the horrors 
of Natural Religion. 

You next complain, that our slaves are kept in bondage by the " Law of 
force." In what country or condition of mankind do you see human affairs 
regulated merely by the law of love? Unless I am greatly mistaken you will, 
if you look over the world, find nearly all certain and permanent rights, civil, 
social, and I may even add religious, resting on and ultimately secured by 
the "law of force." The power of majorities — of aristocracies — of Kings — 
nay of priests, for the most part, and of properly, resolves itself at last into 
'•force," and could not otherwise be long maintained. Thus, in every turn of 
your argument against our system of slavery, you advance, whether con- 
scious of it or not, radical and revolutionary doctrines calculated to change 
the whole face of the world, to overthrow all government, disorganize so- 
ciety, and reduce man to a slate of nature — red with blood, and shrouded 
once more in barbaric ignorance. But you greatly err, if you suppose, 
because we rely on force in the last resort to maintain our supremacy over 
our slaves, that ours is a stern and unfeeling domination at all to be com- 
pared in hard-hearted severity to that exercised, not over the mere laborer 
only, but by the higher over each lower order, wherever the British sway 
is acknowledged. You say, thnt if those you address were "to spend one 
day in the South they would return home with impressions against slavery 
never to be erased." But the fact is universally the reverse. I have known 
numerous instances, and I never knew a single one, where there was no 
other cause of offence and no object to promote by falsehood, that indivi- 
duals from the non-slave-holding States did not, after residing among u-? 
long enough to understand the subject, " return home" to defend our slavery. 
It is matter of regret, that you have never tried the experiment yourself. I 
do not doubt you would have been converted, for 1 give you credit for an 
honest though perverted mind. You would have seen how weak and futile 
is all abstract reasoning about this matter, and that, as a building may not 
be less elegant in its proportions, or tasteful in its ornaments, or virtuous in 
its uses, for being based upon granite, so a system of human government, 
though founded on force, may develope and cultivate the tenderest and purest 
sentiments of the human heart. And our patriarchal scheme of domestic 



48 

servituJo is indeed well calculated to awaken the Iiigiier and fine i- feelings of 
our nature. It is not wanting in its enthusiasm and its poo'ry. The relations 
of the most heloved and honored chief, and the most fuilhlul and admiring 
subjects, which from the time of Homer have been the theme of song, are 
frigid and unfelt compared with those existing between the master and his 
slaves — who served his father, and rocked his cradle, or have been born in 
his house-hold, and look forward to serve his children — who have been 
through life the props of his fortune, and the objects of his care — who have 
partaken of his griefs, and looked to him for comfort in their own — whose 
sickness he has so often watched over and relieved — whose liolidays he has 
so often made joyous by his bounties and his presence : for whose welfare 
when absent his anxious solicitude never ceases, and whose hearty and affec- 
tionate greetings never fail to welcome him home. In this cold, calculating, 
ambitious world of ours, there are few ties more heartfelt, or of more benig- 
nant influence, than those which mutually bind the master and the slave, un- 
der our ancient system, handed down from the Father of Israel. The un- 
holy purpose of the Abolitionists, is to destroy by defiling it ; to infuse into 
it the gall and bitterness which rankle in their own envenomed bosoms ; to 
poison the minds of the master and theseivant; turn love to hatred, array 
^^force'^ against force, and hurl all, 

" Willi liideoiis ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition." 

"iou think it a great "crime" that we do not pay our slaves "wages," and on this 
account pronounce us "robbers." In my former letter I showed that the la- 
bor of our slaves was not without great cost to us, and that in fact they them- 
selves receive more in return for it than your hirelings do for theirs. For 
what purpose do men labor, but to support themselves and their families in 
what comfort they are able? The ellorts of mere physical labor seldom suf- 
fice to provide more than a livelihood. And it is a well known and shocking 
fact, that while few operatives in Great Britain succeed in securing a com- 
fortable living, the greater part drag cut a miserable existence, and sink at 
last under absolute want. What avail is it that you go through the form of 
paying them a pittance of what you call "wages," when you do not, in re- 
turn for their services, allow them what alone they ask — and have a just 
right to demand — enough to feed, clothe and lodge them, in health and sick- 
ness, with reasonable comfort. Though we (Jo not give "wages" in money. 
wo do this forowr slaves, and they are therefore better rewarded than yours. 
It is the prevailing vice and error of the age, and one from which the Abo- 
litionists, with all their saintly pretensions, are far from being free, to bring 
everything to the standard of money. You make gold and silver the great test 
of happiness. The American slave must be wretched indeed, because he is 



44 

n.)t cornpcnsutcd for his services in cash. It is aliogethcr praiscwort'iy to 
p:iy the laborer a shilling a day and lot iiim starve on it. To supply all his 
wants abjadantly, and at all times, yet withhold frotii him money, is among 
"the most reprobated criaies." Tiie fact cannot be denied, that the mere 
laborer is now an! always has bee:i, evorvwhere that barbarism has ceased, 
enslaved. Among the innovations of modern times following "the decay of 
villeinage," has been the creation of a new system of slavery. The primi- 
tive and patriarchal, which may also be called the sacred and natural sys- 
tem, in which the laborer is under the personal control of a fellow-being en- 
dowed with the sentiments and sympathies of humanity, exists among us. 
It has been almost everywhere else superceded by the modern artificial moiiey- 
fower system, in which man — his thews and sinews, his hopes and affections, 
his very being, are all subjected to the dominion of Capital — a monster with- 
out a heart — cold, stern, ariihmetical — sticking to the bond — taking ever "the 
j)Ound of flesh" — working up human life with Engines, and retailing it out by 
weight and measure. His name of old was '• Mammon, the least erected 
spirit that fell from Heaven." And it is to extend his Empire, that you and 
your deluded coadjutors dedicate yom- lives. You are stirring up mankind to 
overthrow our Heaven-ordained system of servitude, surrounded by innumer- 
a!)le checks, designed and planted d^ep in the human heart by God and na- 
ture, to substitute the absolute rule of this "Spirit Reprobate" whose proper 
place was Hell. 

You charge us with looking on our slaves "as chattels or brules," and en- 
ter into a somewhat elaborate argument to prove that they have "human 
forms," " talk," and even " think-" Now the fact is that, however you may 
indulge in this strain for effect, it is the Abolitionists, and not the Slave-hold- 
ers, who practically, and in the most important point of view, regard our 
slaves as "chattels or brutes." In your calculations of the consequences of 
emancipation you pass over entirely those which must prove most seriou*!, 
and which arise from the fact of their being persons. You appear to think 
that we might abstain from the use of them as readil}- as if they were ma- 
chines to be laid aside, or cattle that might be turned out to find pasturage for 
themselves. I have heretofore glanced at some of the results that would 
follow from breaking the bonds of so many human beings now peacefully and 
happily linked into our social system. Ttio tragic horrors, the decay and 
ruin that would for years, perhaps for ages, brood over our land, if it could 
be accomplished, I will not attempt to portray. But do you fancy the blight 
w>juld, in such an even', come to us alone? The diminution of the sugar 
crop of the West Indies affected Great Britain only, and there chiefly the 
poor. It was a matter of no moment to Capital, that Labor should have one 
comfort less. Yet it has forced a reduction of the British duty on sugar. 



45 

Win can cslimale the conscquonces that must follow tirj ctir.iliilaliun (rf llic 

cotton crop of ihc slavo-holdiiig Stales? 1 do not unileivulijo ilic importiiricc 

of other articles of commerce, but no ciilfimity c<iu!d b'.'full the world at all 

comparable to the sudden loss of two millions of brijc-sof colton annuuHy, 

From the deserts of Africa to the Siberian wild.-;— ^from Greenland )o the 

Chinese Wall, there is not a spot oi earth but would feul iha sensatio;i. TIil' 

Factoiios of Europe would fall with a concussion that would shuiic down 

castles, palaces and even thrones ; while the "purse-proud, elbowing inso* 

lenc'c" of our Northern monopolists would disappear forever un-icr the sni(»oth 

speech of the Pedlar, scouring our frontiers for a liveliliood, or the blulF vuU- 

ffarity of the South sea winlcr, following the harpoon amid storms and shoals. 

Doubtless ihe Abolitionists think wecouidgrow cotton without slaves, o;- (hat 

at worst the reduction of the crop Would bo moderate and temporary. Such 

gross delusions show how profoundly ignorant they are of o ir »-,ondition here. 

You dcclart^ that"lhecharact';rof ih(; people of the South has long been that 

oi hardened Infidels, who fear not God, and have no regard for religion."' I will 

not repeat what 1 .said in my former k;tler on tliis point. I only notice it to ash 

you how you could possibly reconcile it to your profesiion of a Christian 

spirit, to make such a malicious charge — to defile your soul with such a 

calumny against an miofieriding pcoplii ? 

"You are old; 
N'jitiiroiii )'(ni stands on the very verge 
or ht;r confine You sliould be ruled and led 
By some discretion." — 

May Go'.l forgive you. 

Akin to this is the wanton and furiou.^ assault made on us by Mr. Macatj^ 
LAY, in his late speech on the Sugar duties, in the House of Commons, which 
has just reached me. His dcnunciationsare wholly without measure, and among 
other things he nss;"rls "that Slavery in the United Slates wears its worst 
form ; that, boasting of our civilization and freedom, and frequenting Christian 
Chuichcs, wo. breed up slaves, nny. beget children tor slaves, and sell thoni 
at so much a head." Mr. Macaulay is a Reviewer, and he knows that he 
is "nothing if not criticiti." The practice of his trade has given iiim the 
command uf ail the .slasliing and vitupf-ralive phrases ol' our language, and 
the turn of his mind leads him to the habitual U3c of them, flc is an author^ 
and as no copy-right law secures for hiin from this country a consideration for 
.Hi.s writings, I.c is not only independenl of us, but iraturally hates ever} thing 
American. He is the Representative; of Edinburgh : it is his cuo to decry 
)ur slavery, and in doing .so he may siilely indulge the malignity of iiis te.Ti- 
;).3r, hi-? indignaliors against us, and iiis capacity fur railing, lie has sufTcred 
once, f.ir being in advance of his limf' in favor of Abolitiun, and he does not 
inlend ;h it it shall h? f,)rgo'ten, or his claim pissed over to any crumb which" 



46 

may now be thrown to the vociferators in the cause. If he docs not know 
that the statements he has made respecting the slaveholders of this country 
are vile and atrocious falsehoods, it is because he does not think it worth his 
while to be sure he speaks the truth, so that he speaks to his own purpose. 
"Hicniger est, hiUiCUijRomanetaveto." 

Such exhibitions as he has made may draw the applause of a British House 
of Commons, but among the sound and high-minded thinkers of the world 
they can only excite contempt and disgust. 

But you are not content v/ith depriving us of all religious feelings. You 
assert that our slavery has also "demoralized the Northern Slates," and charge 
upon it not only every common violation of good order there, but the "Mor- 
mon murders," the "Philadelphia riots," and all "the exterminating wars 
af^ainst the Indians." I wonder that you did not increase the list by adding 
that it had caused the recent inundation of the Mississippi, and the hurricane 
in the West Indies— 'perhaps the insurrection of Rebecca, and the war in 
Scinde. You refer to the law prohibiting the transmission of Abolition pe- 
titions through the mail as proof of general corruption ! You could not do 
so, however, without noticing the late delected espionage over the British 
Post Office by a Minister of State. It is true, as you say, it "occasioned a 
general outburst of National feeling'^— from the opposition 5 and a "Parlia- 
mentary inquiry was instituted" — that is moved, but treated quite cavalierly. 
At all events, though the fact was admitted, Sir James Graham yet retains 
'ihe Home Department. For one, I do not undertake to condemn him. Such 
things are not against the laws and usages of your country. I do not kn ow 
fully vvhat feasons of State may liave influenced him and justified his con- 
duct. But I do know that there is avast difference m point of "national 
morality" between the discretionary power residing in your Government to 
open any letter in the public post office, and a well-defined and limited law 
to prevent the circulation of certain specified incendiary writings by means of 
;he United States Mail. 

Having now referred to everything like argument on the subject of Slavery 
that is worthy of notice in your letter, permit me to remark on its tone and 
style, and very extraordinary bearing upon other Institutions of this country. 
You commence by addressing certain classes of our people as belonging to "a 
nation whose character is noxOso loio in the estimation of the civilized world;" 
and throughout you maintain this tone. Did the Americans who were "under 
your roof last summer" inform you that such language would be gratifying 
to their fellow-citizcns "having no practical concern with slavehokhng*' f Or 
do the infamous libels on America which you read in our Abolition papers 
induce you to believe that all that class of people are, like the Abolitionists 
themselves, totally destitute of patriotism or pride of country? Let me tell 



47 

you that you arc grossly deceived. And although your stockbrokers and 
other speculators, who have been bitten in American ventures, may have raised 
a stunning "cry" against us in England, there is a v^jst body of pcoidc here 
besides s'ave-holdcrs, who justly 

'•Deem their own hind of every laml the pi'iiie. 
Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside." 

And who know that at this moment we rank among the First Powers of 

the world— a position whicli we not only claim, but arc always ready and able 

10 maintain. 

The style you assume in addressing your Northern friends is in perfect 
keeping with your apparent estimation of thcin. Though I should be the 
last, perhaps;, to criticise mere style, I could not but be struck with the ex. 
tremely simple manner of your letter. You seem to have thought you were 
writing a Tract for benighted Heathen, and telling wonders never before sug. 
gested to their imagination, and so far above their untutored comprehension as 
to require to be related in the primitive language of "the child's own book." 
This is sufficiently amusing ; and would be more so but for the coarse and 
bitter epithets you continually apply to the poor slave-holders^— epithets which 
appear to be stereotyped for the use of Abolitionists, and which form a large 
and material part of all their arguincnts. 

But perhaps the most extraordinary part of your letter is your bold de- 
nunciation of ^Uhe shameful compromises'''' of our Constitution, and your earn, 
est recommendation to those ycu address to overthrow or revolutionize it. 
In sj many words you say to them, "^o« must either separate yourselves from 
all political connexion with the South, and make your own laws ; or if you 
do not choose such a separation you must break up ihe political ascendancy 
tchick the Southern have had for so long a time over the Northern States.'' 
The italics in this as in all other quotations are your own. It is well for those 
who circulate your letter here, that the Constitution you denounce requires 
an overt act to constitute Treason. It may be tolerated for an American by 
birth, to use on his own soil the freedom of speaking and writing which is 
"•uarantied to him, and abuse our Constitution, our Union, and our people. 
But that a Foreigner should use such seditious language, in a Circular Letter 
addressed to a portion of the American people, is a presumption well calcu- 
lated to excite the indignation of all. The party known in this country as 
the Abolition Party has long since avowed the sentiments you express, and 
adopted the policy you enjoin. At the recent Presidential Election they gave 
over 6-2,000 votes for their ov/n Candidate, and held the balance of power in. 
two of l!ie largest States— wanting but little of doing it in several others. In 
the last four years their vote has quadrupled. Should the inflituation continue 
and their vote increase in the same ratio in the next four year.-, it will be as 



49 

large as tlic vote of the nclunl slave-holders of thu Union. Sac!; a prospect is 
doubtless extremely gratiuing to you. It gives hope; of a contest on such 
tcrm-s as nn.iy ir.surc the ilowjifall of Shivery or our Constitution. The South 
venerates the Conslilutiun, and is prepared to stand by it forever, such as it 
came from the hands of our fathers ; to risk everything to defend and main- 
tain it inils integrily. uiit the South is under no such delusion as to believe 
that it derives any peculiar protection from the Union. On the contrary, it 
is well known we incuv peculiar dinger and that we bear far more than our 
proporlion of the burdens. Tiie apprenhension is also fast fading away that 
ai y of the dreadful cosisequenccs commonly predicted will necessarily result 
froit! a Separation of tlie Siatrs. And comt what, may we arc firmly resolved 
that ouii SYSTEM Of Domestic Slavery shall stand. The fate of the 
Onion ihei. — but thank God not of Republican Government — rests mainly 
in the hands of the people to wliom your letter is addressed — the "professing 
('hristians of llie Norlhorn State's having no concern v/ith slavtholding," and 
wliom with incendiary zeal you art- endi-avoring to stir up to strife — without 
whiiij fanaticism can neither live, move, nor have any being. 

Yv'e have often been taunted for our sensitiveness in regard to the discus- 
sion of Slavery. Do not suppose it is because we ii;ive any doubts of our 
rights, or scruples about as.serliiig them. There was a time when such 
doubts and scruples were entertained. Our ancestors opposed the introduc- 
tion of Slaves into this country, and a feeling adverse to it was handed down 
iroiii them. Tin; enthusiastic love of liberty fostered by our Revolution strength- 
ened this feeling. And before tiie coinmencem^'nt of the Abolition agitation 
liere, it was the oouinion ;;entiinent that it was desirable to gel rid of Slavery. 
Many th-jught it our duty to do so. Wtien that agitation arose we were 
driven to a close examination of the subject in all its bearings, ai-.d the result 
has boen an M/;n->'r6a/ conrici/on thai in holJing Slaves v>e violate no law of 
God,-^intiict no injustice on any of his creatures — while the tenib.'e coasc- 
qucnccs of emancipation to all parties and the world at large, clearly re- 
vealed to usj make us shudder at the bare thought of it. The slaveholders 
are therefore indebted to the Abolitionists for perfect ease of conscience ai;d 
the .satisfaction of a settled and unanimous determination in reference to tlsiri 
mutter. And could their agitation cease now, I believe, after all, the "ood 
would preponderate over the evil of it in this country. On the contrary, how- 
ever, it is urged on with frantic violence, and the Abolitionists, reasonin<^in 
tho abstract, as if it were u mere moral or metaphysical speculation, or a mi- 
nor question in poliiics, profess to be surpris -d at our cxasjicration. In their 
ignorance and recklosincss they sei.m to be unable to comprehend our feclino-s 
or po-ition. The subversion of our rights, the destruction of our property, the 
disturbance of our pracc an^ ;hc peace of -he world, arc matters which do 



49 

not appear to arrest their consideration. When Revolutionary France pro- 
claiiwed "Hatred to Kings and unity to tlic Republic," and inscribed on her 
banners "France risen against Tyrants," she professed to be only worship- 
ping "Abstract Rights." And if there can be such things, perhaps she was. 
Yet all Europe rose to put her sublime theories down. They declared her 
an enemy to the common peace; that her doctrines alone violated the "Law 
of Neighborhood," and, as Mr. Burke said, justly entitled them to anticipate 
the "damnum nondum factum" of the civil law. Danton, Barrere and the 
rest were apparently astonished that umbrage should be taken. The parallel 
between them and the Abolitionists holds good in all respects. 

The rise and progress of this Fanaticism is one of the phenomena of the 
age in which we live. I do not intend to repeat what I have already said, or 
to trace its career more minutely at present. But the Legislature of Great 
Britain will make it historical, and doubtless you must feel some curiosity to 
know how it will figure on the page of the Annalist. I think I can tell you. 
Though I have accorded and do accord to you and your party great influence 
in bringing about the Parliamentary action of your country, you must not ex- 
pect to go down to posterity as the only cause of it. Though yoib trace the 
progenitors of Abolition from 1516 through a long stream with divers branches 
down to the period of its triumph in your country, it] has not escaped con- 
temporaries, and will not escape posterity, that England, without much effort 
sustained the storm of its scoffs and threats until the moment arrived when 
she thought her colonies fully supplied with Africans ; and declared against 
the Slave Trade only when she deemed it unnecessary to her, and when her 
colonies full of Slaves would have great advantages over others not so well 
furnished. Nor did she agree to West India emancipation until, discovering 
the error of her previous calculation, it became an object to have slaves free 
throughout the Western world, and, on the ruins of the Sugar and Cotton 
growers of America and the Islands, to build up her great Slave Empire in 
the East : while her indefatigable exertions, still continued, to engraft the 
Right of Search upon the Law of Nations, on the plea of putting an end to 
the forever increasing Slave Trade, are well understood to have chiefly in 
view the complete establishment of her supremacy at Sea. On these points 
let me recommend you to consult a very able Essay on the Slave Trade and 
Right of Search by M. Jollivet, recently published ; and as you say, since 
writing your Circular Letter, that you "burn to try your hand on another lit- 
tle Essay if a subject could be found," I propose to you to "try" to answer 
this question, put by M. Jollivet to England : "Pourquoi sa philanthropic 
ii'a pas daigne, jusqit' a present, doubler le cap de Bonne-Esperance ?" Nor 
must you flatter yourself that your party will derive historic dignity from the 
names ©f the illustrious British statesmen who have acted with it. Their 



50 

country's ends were theirs. They have stooped to use you, as the most illus- 
trious men will sometimes use the vilest instruments, to accomphsh their own 
purposes. A few philanthropic common places and rhetorical flourishes, 
"in the abstract," have secured them your "sweet voices," and your influence 
over the tribe of mawkish sentimentalists. Wilberfoece may have been 
yours, but what was he besides, but a wealthy county member ? You must 
therefore expect to stand on your own merits alone before posterity, or rather 
that portion of it that may be curious to trace the history of the Delusions 
which from time to time pass over the surface of human aflairs, and who may 
trouble themselves to look through the ramifications of Transcendentalism in 
this era of extravagances. And how do you expect to appear in their eyes ? 
As Christians, piously endeavoring to enforce the will of God and carry out 
the principles of Christianity? Certainly not, since you deny or pervert the 
Scriptures in the doctrines you advance ; and in your conduct furnish a gla- 
ring contrast to the examples of Christ and the Apostles. — As Philanthropists, 
devoting yourselves to the cause of humanity, relieving the needy, comforting 
ing the afflicted, creating peace and gladness and plenty round about you? Cer- 
tainly not ; since you turn from the needy, the afflicted ; from strife, sorrow 
and starvation which surround you ; close your eyes and hands upon them ; 
shut out from your thoughts and feelings the human misery which is reel, tan- 
gible, and within your reach, to indulge your morbid imagination in conjur- 
ing up woes and wants among a strange people in distant lands, and offering 
them succor in the shape of costless denunciations of their best friends, or by 
scattering among them "firebrands, arrows and death." Such folly and mad- 
ness — such wild mockery and base imposture, can never win for you, in the 
sober judgement of future times, the name of Philanthropists. Will you 
even be regarded as worthy citizens ? Scarcely, when the purposes you 
have in view can only be achieved by revolutionizing governments and over- 
turning social systems, and when you do not hesitate zealously and earnestly 
to recommend such measures. Be assured, then, that posterity will not re- 
gard the Abolitionists as Christians, Philanthropists, or virtuous citizens. It 
will, I have no doubt, look upon the mass of the party as silly enthusiasts, led 
away by designing characters, as is the case with all parties that break from 
the great, acknowledged ties which bind civilized man in fellowship. The 
leaders themselves will be regarded as mere amZ»i7/oMs men; noi taking rank 
with those whose ambition is "eagle-winged and sky-aspiring," but belonging 
to that mean and selfish class who are instigated by "rival-hating envy," and 
whose base thirst is for Notoriety ; who cloak their designs under vile 
and impious hypocrisies, and, unable to shine in higher spheres, devote them- 
selves to Fanaticism, as a trade. And it will be perceived that, even in that, 
they shunned the highest walk. Religious Fanaticism was an old established 



51 

vocation, in which something brilliant was required to attract attention. They 
could not bo George Foxes, nor Joanna Southcotes, nor even Jok Snitiis. 
But the dullest pretender could discourse a jumble of pious bigotry, natural 
rights, and drivelling philanthropy. And, addresr>ing himself to aged folly 
and youthful vanity, to ancient women, to ill-gotten wealth, to the reckless of 
all classes who love excitement and change, offer all the cheapest and the 
safest glory in the market. Hence, their numbers ; and, from number and 
clamor, what impression they have made on the world. 

Such I am persuaded is the light in which the Abolitionists will be viewed 
by the posterity their history may reach. Unless, indeed — which God for- 
bid — circumstances should so favor as to enable then to produce a con- 
vulsion which may elevate them higher on the "bad eminence'' where they 
have placed themselves. 

1 have the honor to be 

Your obedient servant, 

J. H. HAMMOND. 

Thomas Clabeson, Esq. 

Note.— The foregoing Letters were not originally intended for publication. In prepar- 
ing them for tiie press ihcy have been revised. The alterations and corrections made how- 
ever have keen mostly verbal. Had the writer le!t at liberty to condense the two letters 
fnto one, and bring up the history of Abolition to the period of publication, he might have 
presented a more concise and perfect argument, and illustrated his views more forcibly by 
reference to facts recently developed. For example, since writing the first, the letter of 
Mr. Clakkson, as President of the Briti.^h Anti-Slavery Society, to Sir Robert Peel, 
denouncing the whole scheme of "Immigration," has reached him; and after he had for- 
warded the last, he saw it stated that .Mr. Clarkson had as late as the first part of April, ad- 
dressed the Earl of Aberdeen, and declared that all efforts to suppress the African Slave 
Trade had fully failed. It may be confidently expected that it will be ere long announced 
from the same quarter, that the "oxperimeul" of West-India Emancipation has also proved 
a complete abortion. 

Should the terms which have been applied to the AbolitionisU appear to any as unduly 
severe, let it be remembered that the direct aim of these people is to destroy us by the 
most shocidng of all processes ; and that, having a large portiou of the civilized world for 
tln;ir audience, they daily and systematically heap upon us the vilest calumnies and most 
unmitigated abuse. Clergymen lay aside their Bibles and Females unsex themselves to 
carry on this horrid warfare against Slave-holders. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by 

A.. G. Summer, 

In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of South Carolina, 



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